3x magnifier and astigmatism

MPFD

Active member
I have kind of transitioned over to red dots on a couple of my AR's. I have Sig Romeo5, 2 MOA dot and a Trijicon MRO. I have never noticed that either was an odd shaped dot previous to buying a Primary Arms (long eye relief) 3x magnifier. If I had to pick which dot is the clearest and sharpest to my eye it is the Trijicon. But when I put the 3x magnifier behind either one I get a lot of dot distortion. The Sig Romeo 5 looks like a comma, but I can still tell the brightest part of the dot at the top of the comma is the aiming point. On the other hand... the Trijicon turns into bright streak that looks to be 6-8 MOA in length and is very hard to tell where the dot starts and ends in the streak.

I guess my question is, will this getting any better with a higher quality magnifier or do I just have an astigmatism that only shows up under magnification? I really thought prior to trying both it would work better on the MRO and was really shocked at the results.

Anybody have any input or experience with this issue?
 
I also have an astigmatism and have the same issue. I have never tried a "high and magnifier but all red dots give me issues. I have an eotech with a vortex 3x.
 
My vision is 20/20. It’s a deformation in your puple that causes it. I have never had contacts or glasses in my life, and my company tests me yearly. I can get glasses that correct it, and prolly will get safety glasses when I suppress it. But I don’t use glasses unless shooting steel with pistols.
 
I have astigmatism, but I can only see like line 3 on the chart because of it. It is a misshapen lens, not pupil. I have to wear glasses, but I would never shoot without them.
 
Originally Posted By: MPFDWhat does the circle/dot look like to your eyes?

kind of like a misshapen diamond with a flare...

or maybe a jagged comma...
 
Originally Posted By: LazerusOriginally Posted By: MPFDWhat does the circle/dot look like to your eyes?

kind of like a misshapen diamond with a flare...

or maybe a jagged comma...

I see a starburst with all red dots that I have used. I am OK with a shotgun where I can cover the turkey's head with the starburst and know I will hit it, but on a rifle where I am trying to put one bullet in a precise manner it is a no-go.
 
I bought a AT3 sight last year and the manufacturer tried to tell I had eye issues. I had lazek done the year prior and have 20/10. Lol

All my tasco pdps, leupold delta points, and accu dots are crisp. Some things are just made cheap and or defective. Try another brand or switch it out for another.

A lot of red dot low end manufacturers seem to be using this for an excuse for their cheaply made products latey.
 
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At350, they Sent me three dots to try. Some were better than others. If you take them outside during the day the were round and crisp. Inside they looked like starbursts. It is basically a rebranded bushel you can buy on eBay for $39. You get what you pay for. I believe if the dot settings were made dimmer it would be crisp inside since the daylight outside dims it down to a crisp circle.
 
Originally Posted By: MPFD3x magnifier or the Dot? But my dots are clear till I magnify.

To MY eye, my dot clears up a bit when I magnify. I am certain both he dot and the magnifier are fine as I have an issue with ALL red dots and halo sights. I do have an astigmatism.
 
Picked up a trijicon mro and put the vortex vmx magnifier and got the comma effect , called vortex and he said the short focal plane of the mro is to blame . I've seen plenty of YouTube vids of the pairing and no mention of it . Not working for me and with no fix.
 
Not all Lasix operations are totally successful and even after the surgery your eye's can change shape and leave you with some astigmatism. That happened to me.

I had the laser surgery that was done using a computer and the Eye Surgeon still had to touch up the cuts in my cornea using a scapel in his office on a follow up visit. My eye was numbed in the office and he use the previous slits in the cornea that was done by the computer and laser beams to reshape my eye. This was just a few days after the laser operation and the cuts in my cornea were still visible so all he had to do was make them a little bit deeper with his scaple. It was over in a few minutes and really helped my right eye see clearer.

I paid an additional $1,200 per each eye (two eyes done) over what Medicare paid for the eye opeations to get the astigmatism fixed. The medicare payments were only for the cataract surgery part of the opeation.

Yea I'm old and needed my natural lenses removed and replaces with fix focus artifical lenses. My natural lenes were getting cloudy and needed to be removed. He did one eye at a time. The right eye is my good eye now and my dominate eye. My left eye use to be my dominate eye.

My left eye had a retinal problem that had to be fixed by another eye surgeon that specialized in retinal surgery. I had the cataract removed in the left eye by my eye doctor so that the retinal surgeon could see my retina better when he did my retinal surgery. They have to look though the lens in the eye and if that lens is cloudy they can't see the retina as well. So my eye surgeon removed the lens in my left eye and after I recovered from that surgery the retinal surgeon did the retina surgery. I had an epiretinal membrane that developed on my left retina that had to be peeled off the retina. After my left eye was done I waited a month to heal and then they eye surgeon did my right eye cataract surgery and the computer laser surgery on that eye to remove the astigmia.

So now I have 20/20 or sometimes 20/15 eye sight.

An Astigmia is a misshaped eye ball. The eyeball is shaped more like a football than a basketball when you have an astigmatism.

The eye surgeons do a radial keratomy to reshape the eye ball and make it more perfectly rounded in the front of the cornea. The cuts in the cornea help to flatten the front of the eye and make it more round in the front. That way the light rays focus on the back of the eye properly. So it's not the pupil that's operated on. It's the cornea or the clear part of the outer surface of the eye in front of the pupil that's reshaped to make it round again. The Russians invented this type of operation and now my eye doctor uses a computer to do it here with laser beams. The laser beam also cut a slit in the side of the cornea so as to give the surgeon access to the lens inside the eye ball. The lens is broken apart using sound waves and then the piece of the lens are sucked out of the eye. The capsule where the lens is held in place inside the eye is not totally destroyed and a new artifical lens is folded up and places inside the capsule and unfolded to replace the old natural and clouded up lens. So you see much brighter colors after this operation and can see things at a distance much clearer again

Now I use an EOTech EXPS 3-4. It has four 1 moa red dots stacked on top of each other in a vertical row. I also have a 3X flip to the side EOTech Magnifier which helps me see the red dots clearer and better as it magnifies everything to 3x. This helps me see the 1 MOA red dots much clearer and better.

Even after two operations now, my right eye (shooting eye now) I still see two rows of red dots caused by the astigmatism. If I blink it will clear up and I see only one vertical row of 4 red dots stacked on top of each other. I use the top one for anything from zero to 300 meters. And the other 3 dots from 400, 500 and 600 meters respectively. The bottom one is for the 600 meters. I use the 3x magnifier for the longer shots. IE anything over 100 meters.

We all take our eyes for granted when younger. But if you develop a misshaped eye ball you will need to wear eye glasses or contact lenses to correct for the astigmatism or get the laser eye surgery to correct for the astigmatism.

Contact lenses can help but they must be weghted at the bottom to keep them in the proper orientation on the eye ball. If they spin around on the eye then the astitmatism will come back until they reorientate correctly on the eye ball again. So the astigmatism can come and go with contact lenses as you blink your eyes.

Two of my college friends are eye doctors. One is an optomitrist and the other is a opthomologist. We use to life guard together at this private swimming lake and recreation area 30 years ago.
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Even back then I had an astigmatism but my natural lenses were still clear and flexible and I could focus near and far easily with the natural lens. I wore glasses to correct for the astigmatism or contact lenses. Before my eye operations I wore soft multifocal contacts that also corrected for my astigmatism. They worked good until my left eye developed the retinal problem and the eye doctor had to remove the lens in my left eye.

When shooting with my EOTech I have to make sure that the tears in my eye are adequate to keep the eye wet and not too wet. Too many tears and the astigmatism come back.

Before the eye operations I wore soft contacts that corrected for my astigmatism or eye glasses. Now I only wear reading glasses (Diopter 2.50)to read the paper or a book. I wear 1.25 diopter reading glasses for shooting my pistol, so that I can see the front sight on my pistol. I can't see the target or the back sight as clear as the front sight when focused on the front site of the pistol. The artifical lens can't change the focal lenght as they are fixed. But, the front site is the more important thing to look at when shooting a pistol.

With the EOTech, I don't wear eye glasses at all. But, I found that the red dots are not always clear. My astigmatism was not fully corrected and thus the 4 rows of red dots are not clear. Some times I see two rows of 4 dots each with the one vertical row on the right offset from the 4 rows of vertical dots on the left. That's what having a misshaped eyeball does to your eye sight when looking though a red dot scope like my EOTech EXPS 3-4.

My eye surgeon did the best he could do for me, but, it was not perfect as I would have liked. Especially, since I paid an extra $2,400.00 out of pocket for the operations. He had to rent the surgery equipment from the local hosptial's same day surgery center. So, he can't do the Computer Laser operation over again like if he owned the computer and laser equipment himself. St Vincent Hospital owns the equipment or did own it back when I had my operation. I wish I could say that I could see the red dots with 100% clarity. But, that's not the case with me. I'm 67 years old and have diabetis which is probably why I had the eye problems in the first place.

Your mileage may vary. Not all eyes are the same. So you young guys may not have to deal with all all this until you get older. The older guys will know what I'm talking about.
 
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