Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us
Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network
Home
Discussion Groups
General
GeneralCardiologyVisionDentistryPharmacyLaboratoryNutritionAlternative
Diseases and Disorders
AIDSAlzheimer'sArthritisAsthmaCancerBreast CancerDiabetesEpilepsyGlaucomaHepatitisHerpesLupusProstate BPHProstate CancerProstatitisSinusitisTinnitus

Medical Forum / General / Vision / November 2007

Tip: Looking for answers? Try searching our database.

glow around lights

Thread view: 
Enable EMail Alerts  Start New Thread
Thread rating: 
denaman@hotmail.com - 17 Nov 2007 14:11 GMT
Is it normal to see a glow around a light source.

If I get under a street light and look up, the thing will blaze like a
sun, an intense glow radiating from the bulb.  I wonder if this is
what they describe as a visual halo, but then I wonder if it's
completely normal, I mean it is bright.

Same thing happens in some headlights, especially when they're coming
straight on.  Only head the glow is usually a million lines pointing
to the light, or the glow is composed of little blobs (kind of like if
look at a light with your eye tearing, only here the blobs are much
smaller).

Lastly, if I look at the chandalier in my dining room, which has very
bright lights, I see the smae glow/starbust, only here it is
accompanied by a shimmer.

Normal?

I thought it might have something to do with my astigmatism/myopia.  I
know my prescription is a good diopeter off (right now around
-6.75.).  Sure enough, if I tilted my lenses, increasing the
prescription or so I figured, the glow would sometimes assuage some.
But not all the time and not all the way.

Then I thought floaters.  I have pretty bad floaters, and one good eye
which means the floaters are augmented because there's no other eye to
compensate.  Sur enough, when I flicked my eye the image would
sometimes dramatically imrpove as the floater scooted past.  An
improvement but there would still be that glow.

Then I thought that perhaps the glow was to some degree normal, it was
just that the floaters/refractive error was augmenting it.  But it's
so hard to tell because I don't know what other people see.
Dr. Leukoma - 17 Nov 2007 14:41 GMT
On Nov 17, 8:11 am, "dena...@hotmail.com" <dena...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Is it normal to see a glow around a light source.
>
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
> just that the floaters/refractive error was augmenting it.  But it's
> so hard to tell because I don't know what other people see.

Does it look like this?
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/G_MOON/MOONHALO.HTM

Also called a moondog.
denaman@hotmail.com - 17 Nov 2007 14:48 GMT
Kind of.  The inner glow from the light source radiating out in a
gradient is the same, whereas I don't get that outer ring way out.

But I thought the moon phenomenon was due to ice crysals in the
atmosphere.
Dr. Leukoma - 17 Nov 2007 15:57 GMT
On Nov 17, 8:48 am, "dena...@hotmail.com" <dena...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Kind of.  The inner glow from the light source radiating out in a
> gradient is the same, whereas I don't get that outer ring way out.
>
> But I thought the moon phenomenon was due to ice crysals in the
> atmosphere.

Yes.  Ice crystals/moisture.  It is predictive of impending
precipitation.
Excess water in the cornea, i.e. edema, can produce the same effect.
So can dry eye.
Mike Tyner - 17 Nov 2007 16:28 GMT
> On Nov 17, 8:48 am, "dena...@hotmail.com" <dena...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>> Kind of.  The inner glow from the light source radiating out in a
>> gradient is the same, whereas I don't get that outer ring way out.

What you describe sounds a lot like plain old blur, or defocus. And you did
say you're a diopter undercorrected.

Other than refractive blur, light scatter can also arise from the cornea or
the lens, but those would be static and impossible to change with eye
movements.

If it changes sluggishly with eye movements, you can presume it's in the
vitreous. If it changes when you tilt your spectacles, it's refractive.

You've described a combination of both, but your observations don't rule out
a contribution from the cornea or lens.

-MT
 
Sign In
Join
My Latest Posts
My Monitored Threads
My Blog
My Photo Gallery
My Profile
My Homepage

Start New Thread
Enable EMail Alerts
Rate this Thread



©2008 Advenet LLC   Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.