My time has come!
The above stereographic image is for cross-eyed viewing (most stereograms are wall-eyed, so you may need to put your finger in front of your screen until this one comes into focus)
This is an image of Honolulu, Hawaii, published by NASA. Note Diamond Head (the volcanic crater) in the south.
Here are some other stereopairs published by JPL:
Wheeler Ridge, California
Mount Saint Helens
Salt Lake Valley, Utah
Wellington, New Zealand
For some reason I'm getting the depth inverted. Mt. Saint Helens looks like a hole in the ground.
You're doing "wall eyed" viewing. These are for "cross-eyed" viewing. "Wall-eyed" means your eyes are focusing at a point behind the image. You need to cross your eyes for these. Try putting your finger in between your screen and your eyes, varying the distance until the dots merge. Then, remove your finger, focusing on the image itself. That should allow for cross-eyed viewing.
That's so weird, I always thought I was crossing my eyes when doing this...
Same - I’m super confused now. I don’t know what I can do anymore. I thought I just crossed my eyes until the images overlap but when I do that I’m seeing a hole too…so I guess not?
That wouldn't be crossing. Crossing is when you focus your eyes in front of the image. Wall-eyed is where you unfocus your eyes behind the image. Trying to look at your nose is crossing. The way you look at most magic eye images is wall-eyed.
No, there absolutely is some kind of error here via the creation.
I don't think so. When I cross my eyes, it looks correct. Wall-eyed viewing makes it look like a hole. Crossing your eyes makes them go inward. Wall-eyed makes them go parallel. They're created specifically for crossing eyes.
You are correct. I know that I am crossing my eyes.
Edit: Well, I filmed it. Apparently only one eye is crossing, which has the same effect of seeing the left image from the right eye etc. I admit I was wrong, but I can usually see these correctly. That one in particular isn't working in my brain for whatever reason.
Yeah I found the poster's advice worked well. I.e. hold your finger between your eyes and the image and start focussing on your finger and them drop it away as the dots approach. It made me realize I wasn't normally crossing my eyes (for say, magic eye images), I was looking past the image and kind of uncrossing my eyes.
With these ones, they definitely work by crossing your eyes.
Thanks that was it. I can lock in and focus the wall style very fast, as it is the most common. This took me while but got it with the finger trick!