SkyandTelescope.com September 2014 37biggest capsulotomy that he could make without endan-
gering her eye or the artifi cial lens. And he promised to
make the incision as round as he could.
He was good to his word, and after the procedure
Kathy was pleased to see that the diff raction spike had
disappeared in that eye. Even with her eye fully dilated at
night, she could look at Saturn through a telescope with-
out seeing diff raction.
She had the other eye lasered a month later with the
same result: the diff raction spike disappeared. She didn’t
experience any problems from the edges of the capsu-
lorhexes or the capsulotomies, probably because both
openings are nice and round. Her eyes now perform as
they did before the whole cataract ordeal began, and she
looks forward to many more years of astronomy.Lessons Learned
Though wrinkle-caused diff raction may be considered
normal in cataract patients, we discovered you don’t have
to put up with it. Nor do you have to accept the optical
defects that can accompany small capsulorhexes and cap-
sulotomies. As with the rest of our optical train, amateur
astronomers want the largest clear aperture we can get —
with the emphasis on “clear.”
As always when discussing medical concerns, your
mileage may vary. Don’t take this article as a prescrip-
tion for what everyone with cataracts should do; rather
use it as a guide for discussing your goals as an amateur
astronomer with your surgeon. Medical constraints will
guide what is possible and safe, but there are also optical
constraints as to what’s acceptable for amateur astron-
omy. Make sure both you and your surgeon understandwhat you want and how to achieve as much of it as medi-
cally possible. If you go into cataract surgery informed,
you stand a much better chance of coming out happy. ✦Kathy and Jerry Oltion have been amateur astronomers
for about a decade. Jerry builds telescopes and many of his
creations have been featured in Gary Seronik’s Telescope
Workshop column. View their website at http://www.sff .net/people/
j.oltion. They thank Drs. Philip Stockstad, Steven Ofner,
Mark Packer, and Matthew Neale for their assistance in
restoring Kathy’s vision and preparing this article.HEALTHY EYE VS. CATARACT Light passes through the lens to reach the retina, where the eye forms an image. Left: In a healthy
eye, the lens is transparent. Right: Ultraviolet light from the Sun and other causes can cloud the lens, forming a cataract. Vision can
become cloudy, dim, blurred, yellowed, and/or broken into multiple images as a result. (Not all eff ects are shown in the diagram.)JERRY OLTIONJACOPIN / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY (2)Healthy lens Cataract lensRetinaCataract layout.indd 37 6/23/14 12:17 PM