Phil Winkler wrote:Interesting topic and taking me back to my days as a Fire Control Instrument Repair instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
Parallax: the apparent movement of the reticle (of the instrument) over the field of view.
Dominant eye: Hold a finger in front of you and aline it on a distant object like a telephone pole. Now close each eye in turn and watch your finger. When your finger jumps to the left or right of the object when you close an eye then the other eye is your dominant one. It is termed being right-eyed or left-eyed. And don't get me started on crossed-eyes.
In general, aiming anything is usually done with both eyes open.
This thread comes along at a good time for me. Was out caving over the weekend and had a rough time with the compass (Suunto Tandem). My front and back sites did not want to agree. So I just did the above test. There was a rather sizeable jump to the image when I closed my right eye. According to that my left eye is dominant. I'm left-eyed? This comes as a surprise to me. I'm right handed, and when asked would say that sure, I probably favor my right eye.
When I was in basic training I was a good shot, and used my right eye to aim. It felt natural and easy that way, but thinking back on it during the zeroing prodedure I did have to adjust the front sight post way over to one side or the other (don't remember if it was right or left).
Anyway, I'm not going to vote at the moment but the info that I'm left-eyed is quite helpful. One of these days I'd like to buy my own Tandem so I can get plenty of practice finding what works above ground. For now though, I think I will try keeping both eyes open, but if I do favor one it's going to be my left.
For what it's worth, I've worn glasses for the last 15 years and have a strong prescription.