An 88 mm scope is diffraction limited at 1.3 arcseconds. at 50x magnification that's 65 arcseconds. The people who can see deterioration "well before they get to it", that is who see details below an arcminute, are one in aillion prodigies. Maybe on a carefully crafted and perfectly illuminated pattern or something with extreme contrast like sunspots, but on a typical messy texture, human eye is nowhere as good.
If you indeed see this effect at these levels, then either you have literally won the genetic lottery or what limits you is not diffraction, but heat haze, eyepiece quality, residual chromatic aberation of telescope or whatever else is in you way.
Opisska,
My left eye acuity is 66", my right 72", and 62" with both, but these days my vision is on the decline, and I need the aid of a very good optometrist.
It could be genetics. My mothers eyesight was extremely good, and last time I checked, my son's binocular acuity was between 5" and 10" better than mine.
My preferred natural targets for testing are high contrast twigs against the sky at somewhere around 150 to 250m, but I can get pretty close with messy ones if the light is good. My son is better than me on those. My optometrist tells me it's not only my acuity, but my perception that is is rather unusual too, but I know very well there are others that can better me.
David
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