I've made this observation several times in the past, but was reminded of it again recently when riding in a car on the motorway at night.
Obviously, with my degree of myopia, I see individual lights not as clear pinpoints but as vivid splashes of radiance, rather like luminous daisies or chysanthemums. What's very interesting to me is that the pattern within these flowers, the arrangement of blurred dots and rays, is exactly the same in every case. Regardless of the size, brightness or colour, each detail is in roughly the same place.
This suggests to me that if my visual apparatus could somehow be induced to condense these exactly similar artifacts down into one point, I would enjoy better sight... any thoughts?
I see this too, especially when I go walking after dark without glasses. My usual vision now is about 20/70 unless I'm unusually relaxed or unusually anxious. I've always assumed this effect is the same as shadows on the eye chart, the faint double images I see unless I have really good central fixation & keep shifting. That's only my guess & I've never heard anyone else mention it.
I have to admit that I rather enjoy the experience of looking at lights through myopic eyes. I enjoy walks in the city at night for this reason. If/when my sight improves, I do hope I'll retain the ability to look at the world through an unfocused gaze just for experiences like that.
Another myopic experience I rather enjoy is a sort of "inverse blur" when veiwing opaque objects against the sky or in front of a window with the light coming in. The darker object seems made more delicate by the rays of light blurring its outline, and gains a sort of halo of light. People walking in front of the large windows at the swimming baths resemble lean, attenuated figures like aliens in a sci-fi film.
