daytime vision improvement through star gazing?

[silv]

Hey guys,

does daytime vision improve if you spend more time outside at night?

I am under the impression that my good eye sees better than it did. And my bad eye seems to improve, too, because now I begin to see in 3D when I see the differently elevated tree lines up the hill from my porch.

Before, those tree lines just looked as if they were stacked one on top of the other without any distance difference to them.

(Both my eyes are short sighted. I wear glasses for viewing distant objects - but only when I am driving a car.)

:)

Did you guys notice anyhing like that?

Or is it just me eating so many carrots, these days :lol:

[ZeroID]

Dunno, ... but keep eating the carrots ... :D

[multiweb]

:lol: ... just adding that if you see stars duing the day you stop drinking wine. :thumbsup:

[Astro_Bot]

All i notice is that my eyes sting the next day on account of being exposed to the cold night air for hours.

Maybe the eye focussing exercise is helping? Do you wear glasses when looking through the eyepiece?

[silv]

he he he :D

yes, could be the focusing training. there's a muscle involved too, not only the lens and the nerve.
and maybe, something gets more sensitive to light over time? might be the perception/the interpretation in the brain or even some parts of the "seeing mechanics" itself?

(not wearing glasses, except while car driving. I follow the theory that glasses make the eye lazy... :) )

[silv]

uh, that's not nice with your hurting eyes... I only know that from really cold long winter walks.
maybe - if it really bothers you, you could wear a ski mask? keeping the area warm around the eyes will keep them warmer, too.

[AstralTraveller]

Interesting observations Sliv. I can't say I ever noticed that but then I started observing when I was 15 so perhaps I wouldn't notice any effect. What I do know is that experienced observers will see things that less experienced people miss. Sometimes explaining what they are missing enables them to see it, sometimes not. It's nothing to do with the quality of my eyeballs (though they used to be top shelf) and everything to do with the brain. You just get used to noticing. Perhaps it a bit like the advantage of binoviewers, you 'see' more detail because that faint wisp of light in one eye is confirmed by the other and so is accepted as real (all subconsciously of course). Experienced observer's brains are used to accepting that that glint of light is actually an object and so they see it. Perhaps your brain is becoming more attuned to subtle differences?? In any case it's a good thing!

[jjjnettie]

:) Your eyes are learning to see maybe.

[silv]

yay, david, that sounds interesting, doesn't it!

what you describe is the perception sensitivity. totally imaginable in that night time surrounding.
now, let's adapt that theory to daytime vision.
my bad eyes did not mechanically improve at all. it's only the brain which is willing to see more - even in daytime. even leading to a 3D viewing that you can only have with 2 eyes of similar good capacity.
amazing, if this were true. isn't it!
my eyes are far from being similar. one has -0.25 and the other -3.0. no chance for 3D without correcting the worse one.


and with "Train the Brain" - that's gonna be my new income source:
can't afford getting your eyes lazered? no worries! come to me and I will make you see things that aren't even there :lol:

[silv]

uhm, on a side note...
when I first started to spend more time under the starry sky, that was also the time when I started to wear my glasses more often. (because I had to get a car for my new job and drove around wearing glasses.)
I hadn't owned a car (and worn the glasses so regularly) for 8 years.

so, uhm, maybe, it is really the fact that my eyes (or my brain) benefit from wearing glasses I had avoided before, thinking they would make my eyes lazy... ?? ui.
or maybe both: night time focusing AND showing the brain during daytime: "hey, there IS more than we perceived before! Look again!"

[ZeroID]

Another advantage of having an OB, You can shut the door and keep the cold wind out. I noticed this the other night that I stayed warmer because I was not fighting the wind chill factor. Even a gentle breeze can make you feel a few degrees colder.

Whats wrong with wine during the day ?? A few stars shouldn't stop you ..!! :D :P :thumbsup:
Eat more carrots I say !! :lol:

[Poita]

I do convergence exercises and it brought my left eye back from needing a mild prescription to not needing one any more, so maybe your vision has slightly improved if the muscles have strengthened that pull the lens into shape.

Impossible to say though without some actual testing before and after.

[Astro_Bot]

Ah, it all comes down to dark sites and money! If I was at a dark enough place, I might think about an observatory, but then again, that'd be the difference between comfortable viewing and being able afford the car. ;)

Now, if we could just get local councils to replace street lights with blockable, monochromatic LEDs ....

[Danack]

I'm pretty sure my eyesight is much better now since I took up photography two years.

Though that may not be from looking through the camera lens, but more from just not being sat in front of a tv/computer screen all day.

[Suzy]

Hi Annette,

Like you I'm short sighted and only wear my glasses when I have (watching tv and driving & the proverbial on/off scenario for red dot finder on the scope or scan sky naked eye). And I also think that's it's better to not wear them and exercise the eyes rather than become lazy & worse using them. How true that is, I don't know. :shrug: Good question for the Optometrist next visit!
But to answer your question, I haven't noticed any improvement as such. Hmmm they haven't gotten worse either. :question:

In the past I've read that swapping the eye at the eyepiece is beneficial. I (& I think most people?) tend to use the one eye. Something to do with the other eye getting lazy at picking up detail compared with the observing eye? I'd like to know more on this if anyone has any input. :question:

And as for cold weather observing- around 5 deg. and my eyes just will not focus (even with glasses)- everything is fuzzy. It's like my eyeballs are frozen along with everything else. :lol: Strange. I don't know why, but it's made it self painfully apparent every time I've tried to do so. Not that I "do" that temp. often- I hate the cold.:P

[silv]

eye hibernation - that's a rare phenomenon, Suzy :lol:

I myself am not viewing through an eye piece, though - only during star aligning the telescope.
My optical organ (including perception and interpretation) gets additional training for far away focusing on dim objects in the dark sky.
So I get far sighted... !
Which - now I think about it - is also noticeable when reading my E-books: I have to hold the E-reader further away than I used to. Yeah, one of these days I will take a free seeing test to proof what I already know ;)

I reckon, looking through an eye piece must have more of the effect of a watchmaker's profession to the eyes? Getting short sighted?