The best way to see something clearly is to not look at it directly.
I was switching out the audio cords in the back of my machine in preparation for a conversation via Skype with my colleague in Bozeman, and as you might imagine it is somewhat dark under my desk. It was really difficult to see anything in the dim light when I looked directly at it, but when I looked off to the side I could see much more detail. This reminded me of the Observational Astronomy course I took my sophomore year of undergrad, when Dr. Odell told us that one can observe much more of the night sky with the naked eye by looking just to the side of the object(s) of interest. My recollection is that rods are much more light sensitive than cones, and rods predominate in the peripheral vision--so dim objects are much clearer when you are not looking at them.
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