Discovered I have mild astigmatism... illuminated sights that are clear?

rommelrommel

rommelrommel

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Finally bought a Micro of my own and at higher settings I see a cluster of dots rather than a single dot. Scout mounting seems to make it a bit more distinct, and keeping the brightness down also helps.

Regardless, I've had this problem really badly with cheap red dots, and I've read that Eotechs generally are blurry too if you have astigmatism. What illuminated sights don't do this? I'm assuming ACOG's and trijicon scopes won't. Especially curious about the S&B Short Dot.
 
I found the same thing when I had an EOTech. So, I sold it... right now I am using a 1-4x24 IOR and she is clear as a bell. I have another rifle that will end up as a scout and am thinking the burris FF2.... I hope that it does not look blurry!! If it does I am thinking that Ill try an Aimpoint....

Its a PITA!!!!!!! All I want is a clear reticle......
 
I have no problem with scopes, I didn't even realize I had any vision problems until I figured out that every red dot I look through looks like a cluster of dots.
 
hmmmm

Are there any articles on this phenomenon?

Is it the stigmatism or near sitedness that makes red dots blurry and fuzzy?

They should be clear up close if you are near sited but they are not.

Anyone?
 
I used to have astigmatism, rather than change sights I had my eyes lazered. Problem solved!

Provided your prescription isn't changing you may wish to consider it.
 
I have read a few posts on other sites about astigmatism causing red dots to appear as a cluster of dots. I think I'm going to go back and talk to my eye doctor. I only recently realized I need glasses at all, so this is a new thing to me.
 
hfp75 said:
Are there any articles on this phenomenon?
Is it the stigmatism or near sitedness that makes red dots blurry and fuzzy? They should be clear up close if you are near sited but they are not. Anyone?
Click to expand...

It only appears fuzzy because as somebody said above its made up of a tons of tiny dots...

Unlike most other "red dot" sights, the EOTech sight has a hologram window and a solid state red laser to display the reticle (which is just a holographic image of a reticle in the window).

Anything illuminated by coherent (laser) light will have an effect called "speckle".

Since every photon ("particle" of light) has exactly the same frequency and wavelength, the reflected photons are phase shifted by roughness at the molecular level and randomly add to or cancel each other (which is why you see millions of "dots"... those are where the photons added - the darkness between the dots is where the photons canceled).

Even a surface which seems smooth (like glass or ground and polished steel) will be "bumpy" at the molecular level and exhibit speckle when illuminated by laser light.

Try shining an ordinary laser pointer at a piece of paper or a wall and look at the dot. You will see that it appears to be composed of millions of tiny dots. That's speckle.

That's why I got an Aimpoint Comp M2 for my AR-15 rather than the EOTech... because I could see the speckle, it bugged me and I knew there was nothing to be done about it.

One good thing about a true holographic sight is that the reticle image is stored all over the window (this is true of ANY hologram).

If the window is cracked, dirty or partially missing, the reticle will still show up in it's entirety.

This means that a combat damaged EOTech will still be useful while a convention LED red dot (like the Aimpoint) would be disabled by damage.

I would say buy an EOTech if the speckle doesn't bother you (or you can't see it). Otherwise, get something that uses a non-coherent LED (i.e. not a laser) such as an Aimpoint.
 
I have the same problem. I've deliberately been on a mission lately to try to get a peek through as many optics as I can. So far, aside from the cheapie ones, which we won't even bother talking about, the only higher end one I've had a problem with is the Eotech, likely for the reasons mentioned above. The Aimpoint T-1 Micro was perfect, the Acog TA31 was simply magnificent and the latest one I tried, a Spectre DR was also very fine. It seems that you get what you pay for, heh.
 
Paulinski said:
I have astigmatism myself - no problem using Aimpoints / Eotechs / Acogs.
Click to expand...

Same here...been wearing glasses for over 30 years and I prefer EOTech's. If you notice the sparkly bits that make up the reticle image try shooting with both eyes open and focus on the target (this is the biggest advantage of the EOTech-field of view). This will superimpose the image and you won't notice it so much. Also, turn down the illumination until you just barely see the reticle.

Like anything, you have to get used to the EOTech.
 
Ok, I think we're talking about two different issues. Yeah, laser driven systems may appear "sparkley" at high intensity when viewed carefully, but OP says that ALL red dot sights have "a cluster of dots". I've seen a second "ghost" dot on cheap red dot sights at high intensity, but never "a cluster".
 
With my glasses off I see a cluster of red dots something like this:
Picture-7.jpg

But not blue.
Seeing individual photons is not the problem.
I'm not supposed to have astigmatism, it just seems to be focus-related.

edit:

Like this:
reddot.png
 
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I thought the same until I realized the scopes are not meant to look at the reticle/dot/whatever but rather at the target.
When I'm focusing on the dot or T-dot it looks blurry. When I'm glassing rabbits the dot is round and crisp.
 
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