What do your Elven eyes see?

[alatar]

I'm not really seeing the issue. Various species inhabiting our current environments see at different levels of acuity (think birds of prey). Bugs see in different spectra altogether. Cats, as noted, see well enough in low light to hunt (when they should be sleeping, like the rest of the household ). Other mammals are nocturnal as well.

And even just before the Elves rose, Varda put up new constellations, which surely were brighter than they may be now (probably still had that new star smell as well).

Anyway, with all of that, our eyes really aren't that different. Squids, however, must have been the apple of the Creator's...er...anyway, you can read more about how incredible their eyes are here.

[skip spence]

Many city-folks have also forgotten that on a clear night away from any artificial lights the stars do illuminate quite adequately, even without the moon, at least well enough for normal humans with normal eyesight to move about without trouble. Perhaps the elven eyes just grew accustomed to the scarce light throughout the years, just as ours might have done if we were in the same situation.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Many city-folks have also forgotten that on a clear night away from any artificial lights the stars do illuminate quite adequately, even without the moon, at least well enough for normal humans with normal eyesight to move about without trouble. Perhaps the elven eyes just grew accustomed to the scarce light throughout the years, just as ours might have done if we were in the same situation.

I was thinking the same thing. As stated before somewhere, took the boy camping for a few days in the middle of mostly no where. Though not very familiar with the area, I still able to navigate around in the dark with only minor slow downs - except when one of the scouts would blast me in the eyes with his flashlight, asking, "Can you see?"

"Not anymore..."

[Boromir88]

Hopefully this isn't too far off Tolkien, if it is, I'll delete it, but it's pretty fascinating info. (Guess where I saw it?...Mythbusters )

Pirates possibly wore eyepatches so they could protect one eye from the brutal sun, and when they go underdeck/or at night they switch the eye patch over and can see at night. I tried it and it actually works, it's like natural human night vision, very cool. Just get an eye patch, and at night, turn on the lights in your house, make it nice and bright for about half an hour, then make it pitch black, switch the patch over...bingo nightvision in one eye. You can see everything! It's actually more like wight-vision. It all has something to do with rods and cones in your eyes.

So, don't give those fancy elves credit for everything, we can see very well at night too! hmm...wonder if Tolkien as aware of this bit of info.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I tried it and it actually works, it's like natural human night vision, very cool.

You might be able to market such technology; though you may want to have them filter the amount of light to each eye simultaneously...