82 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE February | March 2019
FOCAL POINT by Pat PlunkettLEAH TISCIONE /S&TThat’s when I started to notice that
something was not right. I’m almost
always the first of the group to find
objects and usually the one to point
them out to my compatriots. As Venus
appeared, I kept losing it when trying
to aim my scope at it, while my mates
seemed to have no problem keeping
a lock on our sister planet. Oh well, I
thought, I must be a little off my game
tonight. Later, one of the group was
trying to get me to M42, and I was
having trouble locating the Belt stars to
indicate the way to the Sword. Again, I
thought I was just a bit off.
Later still, one of the folks found
one of the better galaxies and itsSight unseen
On a fine observing night with friends, an amateur astronomer got an alarming surprise.
OUR LOCAL ASTRONOMY CLUB hosts
a monthly starwatch every third Friday.
Since it was finally a clear evening, I
travelled to the site to get ready for
what I hoped would be a great evening
observing a crescent Moon and lots
of deep sky objects. I was especially
looking forward to my last peek of the
season at M42, the Orion Nebula.
When I arrived, the Sun was still up
but low on the horizon, and the Moon
was high in the western sky. I took
advantage of the sunlight to set up my
scope and start viewing the Moon — it
was magnificent through my refractor.
As the evening wore on, the sky darkened
nicely, and the stars began popping out.companion galaxy. When I put my
eye to the eyepiece of his 25-cm
reflector, I was barely able to make
out the main galaxy and certainly
couldn’t see the companion. Bad night
indeed, I thought. Then one of the
inexperienced visitors peered through
the scope and saw both galaxies with
no problem.
What was happening? Was I losing
my sight?
The night continued in the same
vein for a while, and I contented myself
with observing the Moon. It really was
outstanding, so the night wasn’t a total
disappointment. But I left the site with
a real worry nagging at me. Were my
eyes finally succumbing to old age? I’m
only 63, after all!
On the drive home, my headlights
didn’t seem to be working as well as
usual, and as I pulled into my driveway
I checked to see if both headlights
were functional. (They were.) Okay,
now I was really worried. Can sudden
loss of vision happen? Anticipating an
emergency visit to an ophthalmologist
in the morning, I morosely started
dragging my stuff inside. As I entered
the house, everything seemed dim as
well. Not good.
Then, feeling like a complete idiot,
I noticed that I still had my sunglasses
on! They’re the same prescription as my
regular glasses, including being bifocals.
It’d been sunny when I arrived at the
stargazing site, and I’d simply forgotten
to remove them.
Moral: It’s never too dark to be cool,
but if you see someone in your group
wearing sunglasses after dark, you might
want to mention it.PAT PLUNKETT spent 20-plus
years in the air force, after which he
taught computer science for another
20-plus years.