I'm currently sitting out in the middle of a state Forrest, a Ruger 22/45 on my lap, with a now 20 year old Tasco Optima dot sight on it. My eyes have gone to crap the last few years. Not too many years ago an iron sighted revolver would have been with me instead.

Anyway... when I look through the sight I see a dot and some other shit. lol Quarter halo and some smaller dots. My thought/question is, if this is from an astigmatism would it look EXACTLY the same with both eyes?

(There's no one else around to ask to look at it and won't be for several days)

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
My thought/question is, if this is from an astigmatism would it look EXACTLY the same with both eyes?

An authority will probably answer, but try taking a picture of the dot if you can. That will reveal if it's a problem with the reticle or with your eyes.

It could look the same/similar with both eyes, but won't necessarily. You can have astigmatism issues with one or both, and the issues can vary in severity or appearance between the eyes.

As sigfreund pointed out, taking a photo of the reticle will help determine if it's the optic or your eyes.

Also helpful is to rotate the optic while looking through it. With astigmatism, the position of these extraneous reticle artifacts will remain the same as your rotate (because it's your eye causing them). But if there's something wrong with the lens/emitter, the artifacts will rotate along with the optic.

^ just picked up my phone to add that the halo/mess rotates when I rotate the gun. Also the mess spreads out when I put the dot in the lower left corner and gets tighter in the upper right corner.

Sounds like that 20 year old optic has developed some issues. Time for something newer.

But the good news is that it's not your eyes! (Or at least not just your eyes... )

A picture of my ACRO reticle that has at least two distinct parts when I look at it.




Oddly (I believe) the dot was also distorted when I looked at it through the viewfinder of the camera. Except for the picture being a little out of focus and therefore a bit fuzzy, though, the clear round dot in the photo is what I wish I see.

You should check with your eye Dr. I started to experience this and blew it off to astigmatism. Apparently it's a specific type of cataract.

Are you also seeing halos around lights at night?

quote:

Originally posted by Rightwire:
You should check with your eye Dr. I started to experience this and blew it off to astigmatism. Apparently it's a specific type of cataract.

Are you also seeing halos around lights at night?

Yep, a possible cataract.

Jim

See a doctor, yes. Twenty years a ago I was buying an inexpensive.22 scope and thought I got a defective one with an aberration on the scope lines. Bought a different brand and same thing? Ended up with sight saving laser surgery. Be safe.

"Halo" was probably a poor choice of words. It's an arc of smaller dots from 12 to almost 3 0'clock

It is my understanding astigmatism manifests with RDS' as "rays" shooting out from the dot and the dot, itself, appearing somewhat larger and somewhat indefinite. That's how it manifests with me. The worse the astigmatism, the worse the rays and the more indefinite the dot.

I agree with an earlier poster: Sounds like the optic is done for.

One way to tell if it's astigmatism or the optic is to look through the optic through a pinhole. (The rear peephole on an AR flip-up sight works.) If the effect goes away, it's likely astigmatism. If it doesn't, it's the optic.

Based on your pic, there is nothing wrong with your red dot. You have astigmatism.

Something that I've found to be helpful to my students is to cover the front of the optic. With both eyes open and the front covered, you may have a better sight picture.

quote:

Originally posted by sooma:
Based on your pic, there is nothing wrong with your red dot. You have astigmatism.

That's not the OP's optic. The OP is "cas". He hasn't posted any photos.

The picture of a reticle is from a different member, "sigfreund", as an example of how his reticle looks odd in person due to his astigmatism, but looks normal in photos.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by sooma:
Based on your pic, there is nothing wrong with your red dot. You have astigmatism.

That's not the OP's optic. The OP is "cas". He hasn't posted any photos.

The picture of a reticle is from a different member, "sigfreund", as an example of how his reticle looks odd in person due to his astigmatism, but looks normal in photos.

Correction accepted, apologies.

Still, the OP should try to cover the front of his optic and see it that makes a difference.

Astigmatism........nothing wrong with your optic.

I have it in my right eye. Sometimes I will she the little arc. If I use my left eye, it looks okay. So, you may or may not have it in both eyes.

Mine is only in my right eye. If I use the left, I see a nice, round dot.

I went through a period last month where my left eye got irritated and as the day went on a single dot turned into two. It was an infection that causes the cornea to dry out, and the shape of it changes in a non-umiform way.

All better now after some expensive prescription eye drops.

If the reticle appears messed up in photos, and/or the messed up portion rotates along with the optic/gun when turned (like the OP stated it does), then it's not astigmatism, it's not a cataract, it's not an infection, and it's not a tumor... It's the 20 year old optic.

I thought I had read a suggestion that polarized glasses might help with a fuzzy/distorted reticle dot. Perhaps it was in another thread. In any event, I recommend checking to see if that would work before going to the trouble and expense. I just checked both my ACRO and Docter sights with photographic circular and linear polarizing filters, and neither made any difference with what I see with either sight.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I thought I had read a suggestion that polarized glasses might help with a fuzzy/distorted reticle dot. Perhaps it was in another thread. In any event, I recommend checking to see if that would work before going to the trouble and expense. I just checked both my ACRO and Docter sights with photographic circular and linear polarizing filters, and neither made any difference with what I see with either sight.

I think that has more to do with the shape of the lens of your glasses in regards to polarized.
Every pair of glasses that I have changes what the dot looks like.
I have two pairs of polarized glasses that are single vision and same prescription, the effect is different between them with the dot being better with the sunglasses.

I wear bifocals now and my work ones with no coatings at all is not a good match for a red dot.
My normal glasses are better but I get a different effect depending on how I hold my head.
A dirty optic lens can make the dot really funky for me as well.
Same with the windshield on my car, I polish it to keep the water spots off to make night driving in the rain a bit better.

I'm due for new glasses since I'm using bifocals and my reading glasses again and am going to talk to them about getting something done.