Everyone of a certain age begins to wonder about their decreasing vision capabilities. But this is especially true of astronomers, both professional and amateur, or anyone who enjoys experiencing the night sky. This article documents my experiences as cataracts in both eyes began reducing my night vision and impacting my views through the telescope.

Several years ago my eye doctor began noticing that cataracts were forming in the lens of both eyes. For awhile the only noticeable symptom was the very slight yellow color of the Full Moon as the lenses became more cloudy. Later, I began realizing that I no longer needed to use a Moon Filter when viewing the bright Full Moon through the telescope. And I could no longer see stars fainter than Magnitude +5 with my naked eyes, which was disappointing as I used to be able to see Magnitude +7 stars from my observatory. Since I live in a dark sky location, seeing only brighter stars was really annoying. I also began noticing that the sky was no longer as black as it had been, but was more a gray color. Fortunately, until May 2025, seeing most details was not a problem. Once I could no longer focus the telescope eyepiece I decided it was time for cataract surgeries to replace the lens in both eyes.

I began asking astronomer friends if they had had cataract surgery, and if so, what type of lens did they choose and how things improved with the new lenses. I also began doing a lot of research into lens types. I had a consultation with the eye surgeon in June 2025. Being an astronomer, I had many questions for the surgeon. I explained my desire for better night vision. We discussed the various options for the lenses and surgery. Following the consultation I did more research and finally decided on the basic distance-only lens which would give me good infinity focusing without reducing night vision or adding potential glare from bright light sources. Post surgeries I would likely need glasses with some correction for reading. I was OK with that. I also decided on the manual surgery instead of the more costly laser eye surgery.

I had my eye surgeries on 4 August (left eye) and 19 August (right eye).

The surgeries were no issue. I experienced no pain and could see immediately afterwards. Immediately after the surgery my left eye vision was very fogged up. The doctor assured me that the fog would disappear within a short period of time, which it did within a few days. There was some fogging of the right eye vision after its surgery, but it was less and cleared up quickly. The most obvious improvement with the new lenses was that colors were much better. White was really white and blue was really blue. It was easy to see this change with the new left eye lens after the first surgery by looking at white walls and blue objects with my right eye only and comparing the view using my left eye only. The daytime sky was a nice blue again, with nice white clouds. The right eye had a similar improvement. I realized that when I had made manual white color balance corrections in photographs, with my cataracts I was likely making bad corrections since the "white" I was seeing was not a correct white. That problem is eliminated now.

It was nice to see a proper color when looking at the Moon in the sky! The left image below is an approximation of how the Moon looked through the cataracts. The right eye shows the Moon's appearance following the surgeries.

A few days after each surgery, there was a halo around the Moon, but that was gone within about a week after each surgery. With each new lens I saw a bright line extending away from a bright light at 2PM and 8PM. I took this iPhone photo of ceiling lights that shows what I was seeing. (The lens was smeared by a finger.)

The lines decreased over time. Ten days after each surgery the lines would frequently disappear for awhile and they were totally gone 14 days after the surgeries.

One night after the first (left eye) surgery I did a quick visual test using the constellation of Scorpius. With my left eye I could see stars about one magnitude fainter than I could see with my uncorrected right eye. On the morning of 12 August 2025, I viewed the close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. The stars looked good, but I was surprised that there were six bright objects for the "double planet" instead of just two when viewed with just the left eye. This iPhone photo was edited to show the planets (in the lower left corner) as I saw them with my new left eye lens.

I went to the observatory on 8 September and did some visual tests. The "refractive error" of seeing multiple objects was apparent in naked eye views of bright stars and the Moon. However, at the telescope eyepiece I could easily focus on star clusters, nebulae, and the Moon with no errors seen. The views were considerably better than they had been pre-surgery.

Saturday night, 20 September 2025, I attended a star party at Oracle State Park, our local "International Dark Sky Park" since 2014. It was really nice to see many more stars that night than before the surgeries.

I received my new bifocals on 24 September 2025. The "refractive error" in my distance vision was corrected, with the sharpest view of the night sky I have had in several years. Close vision was also the best in years.

Tuesday night, 14 October 2025, I did some visual naked eye limiting magnitude tests from my observatory. Although the sky was clear, the humidity was high, resulting in a good, but not great night. I used the constellation of Pegasus near the zenith for my tests. I looked at the stars in the "Great Square of Pegasus" to determine the faintest stars visible. The faintest star seen with direct and averted vision with either eye alone and with both eyes together was V342 Pegasi, Magnitude +5.96. That matched the Sky Quality measurement of 20.64 that I did a few minutes later. I could certainly see more stars in the sky than on nights before the cataract surgeries. I could also easily the Andromeda Galaxy (M31); it was brighter than previously seen through the cataracts.

I viewed the Andromeda Galaxy through the 12" telescope, 102X. A dust lane was easily seen. While this feature was visible before the cataracts became bad, it was invisible for the last two years as my cataracts became worse.

While my eyes have not yet totally settled down, I am very pleased with the results of having my natural eye lens removed from both eyes. I can see more stars at night from my dark sky location and the sky background appears darker than the gray color seen through the cataract affected lenses.

I will update this article as necessary to indicate any changes in my vision.

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