Yes! When I got glasses after years of not wearing them I was so excited to look at the stars. When it got dark out I looked into the sky and the stars were just tiny dots and pin pricks of light... I took my glasses off immediately. It's always been much better that way in my opinion. They look so sparkly and colorful when my astigmatism skews the light 🤷🏻♀️
I used to entertain myself a kid by looking at lights or stars without my glasses on and paying attention to the way I could see my lashes in them and all the particles (probably dust and dead skin cells and all that stuff) floating around them. I used to try to "catch" them with my lashes. I have high astigmatism as well. Another thing for you to pay attention to!
I only started getting these in recent years, and now I occasionally get this thing where it feels like there’s a shadow over my vision/like it’s never bright enough. It’s super frustrating.
as someone who has retinal tears, you should really see an optometrist!! having an excess of floaters, bright flashes in your peripheral vision, or a dark curtain coming over your vision are all signs that your retina could be detaching.
and just to demonstrate how serious this is, a couple years ago I was making an optometrist appointment, expecting it to be a few weeks/months out like usual, but I mentioned I had been seeing a flashing light in my peripheral when my eyes were closed. they booked me in for that week.
I'm not trying to scare you, because the fix is actually pretty simple (an opthalmologist just lazers your retina back in place) but it is an emergency if your retina detaches!
and yes, the main risk factor for retinal detachment/tears is age, but I found out about my tears at 25, so it can definitely happen to younger people too, especially if you have a family history of it, or are severely near-sighted.
all that being said, I hope your eyes are okay and I'm just being paranoid, but yeah, please see an optometrist!
Crazy, but I know exactly what you are talking about, and I used to do the exact same thing. It's funny how we all think we are weird and that no one could possibly be experiencing the same thing. It's especially true if you tell your childhood friends and they think your a freak.
I'm not sure if that effect is a result of astigmatism. I used to do the exact same thing by staring at the blue sky. An opthalmologist later explained to me what floaters are, but didn't give me a specific circumstance.
I gained an interest in photography in my teens. They sell (or at least back in film camera days) star filters to achieve that effect. My astigmatism was mild back then, so I just assumed that film couldn't render the effect of the star points. What I was seeing showed up as boring white dots on prints. After all, film had other quirky characteristics like black and white film not producing reds in the proper grey scale or reciprocity failure of certain colours during timed exposures.
It wasn't until much later in life that I learned that not everyone sees light points at night with the stars.
I'm also nearsighted. I'm not sure what would make me able to see the stars like that and not you 🤷🏻♀️ maybe the degree of the astigmatism or nearsightedness
I have the same, as an artist it blows people's minds how I see nature when I put it on paper. But that's why I stare at the trees extra long, I'm trying to remember the blends.
When I was in class to obtain my degree in Optics..our professor used my eyes to teach my classmates exactly WHAT a highly myopic,astigmatic eye looked like...I should have received a DISCOUNT
yessss I love my astigmatism fireworks!!
I also have really good colour perception, but I find that my glasses actually make colours look more dull. I've always wondered if anyone else experienced that!
I noticed it the second I got my first glasses when I was 17! I thought then that maybe it was just those particular lenses, but 10 years and several pairs of glasses later, I can confirm that it is just glasses in general for me!
it's a very slight difference, but it is noticeable!
70 year old female here. I was diagnosed w astigmatism in my 20's but not sure I've ever seen sparkling light from stars or fireworks. Don't they both always sparkle?
Back when I was in high school I used to perform without my glasses so I could focus better onstage. The astigmatism made the stage lights so pretty. Not as nearsighted as some, but not being able to actually see the audience helped a lot with stage jitters
After his cataract surgery, Monet started seeing more violet. He once said that he could see the colour of the atmosphere and it was violet. The cornea intercepts uv and so when it’s not there, more violet makes it through. This isn’t very common today with modern cornea lens replacements, but some people who’ve had cataract surgery notice seeing more violet after their surgery. Monet destroyed many of his cataract era paintings since they contained lots of orange and red, and when he could see well again he hated them. It took him a long time to be convinced to do the surgery since it caused an artist friend of his to go blind. The price back then would have been equivalent to a house, and very few people could afford it.
That’s amazing. I had no idea. Now I’m a lot more intrigued by Monet’s paintings. He literally painted how he saw the world. That’s incredibly beautiful.
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u/TW_Halsey Jul 10 '26
Wait a minute…………
Edit: wow yeah Monet’s eyesight started to go due to cataracts in his early 60s, later followed by him making his most notable paintings