more detail in the paler, but larger, image?
Averted vision helps with double stars, when one star is much fainter than the other, even if the faint star is bright enough not to need averted vision if it were by itself. That is, averted vision seems to facilitate the detection of low contrasts as well as faint objects. (e) Stray light avoidance. Even when it’s dark, background glow interferes with detecting faint objects. Keep it out of your telescope and out of your eyes. Try eye patches and eye cups for eyepieces. My first view of the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy was with my jacket collar pulled up over my binocular eyepieces. I looked like a cross between the Headless Horseman and the Guns of Navaronne, but I saw the galaxy. (f) Moving the telescope. The eye sometimes detects motion, or changing levels of brightness, more easily than static images. Jiggle the telescope, or move it back and forth, to make an object “pop out”. Try it while using averted vision. (g) Not moving the telescope. The eye sometimes adds up photons over many s
