The half raquetball will cease to be round and take on an oval shape. In a cornea or other refractive element in the eye of this shape, light focusing will be more powerful in the X axis meridian and focus before the light focusing of the power in the Y axis meridian. This creates two focal points in the eye and the perception of blur to the person with the astigmatism. People with astigmatism may be blurry at distance and near, whereas farsighted people are usually blurry at near and nearsighted people are usually blurry at far. Astigmatism also may cause certain letters or characters appear more blurry than others.
Contact lenses ARE available for people with astigmatism.
There is considerable time and skill involved in fitting patients with these lenses but it can be done for ALL astigmatisms if the patient is highly motivated to try.