Eyes on the eclipse

As reported on the Mayo Clinic website, Dr. William Brown stated that staring directly at the sun can seriously damage your eyes if you aren’t using specifically designed eclipse glasses.

Dr. Brown noted that the only time the sun can be viewed without proper safety glasses will be during the total eclipse – that short time when the moon covers the sun completely. “The sun is so intense. Regular sunglasses only absorb maybe 90% of the sunlight and the light in our environment. Eclipse glasses absorb more like 99.9999%,” says Dr. Brown.

He continued, “I liken it to a camera flash. When a camera flashes, you get this afterimage because the rods and the cones [in your eyes] have to recover from that. When you’re staring at the sun, they don’t have a chance to recover, and they may totally be lost due to the damage that can occur from looking at the sun.”

“When we have intense light the eyes don’t have the ability to recover, and we can lose visual function. Depending upon the length of time that we’re staring at that bright light, it can either be temporary loss or it can be permanent loss. So, that’s that danger of looking at the sun [during the eclipse],” Dr. Brown said.

According to PreventBlindness.org, the symptoms that can occur from looking at a solar eclipse without proper eye protection can include: loss of central vision (solar retinopathy), distorted vision, and altered color vision.

The NASA website suggests that when watching a solar eclipse directly with your eyes you must look through safe solar viewing glasses (eclipse glasses). Eclipse glasses are NOT regular sunglasses. No matter how dark, they are not safe for viewing the sun. Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker and should comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard.

NASA advises that eclipse glasses or handheld viewers should be examined before use to make sure they are not torn, scratched, or otherwise damaged. If damage is found, the device should be discarded.

It is also advised NOT to use eclipse glasses or handheld viewers with cameras, binoculars, or telescopes. Those devices require different types of solar filters.

PreventBlindness.org also gave the following tips on how NOT to watch the solar eclipse:

• Do NOT use your camera viewfinder: Never look at a solar eclipse through the optical viewfinder of a camera. It can damage your eyes in the same way as looking directly at the sun.
• Do NOT use unsafe filters: Unless specifically designed for viewing a solar eclipse. Solar filters designed for eyepieces that come with inexpensive telescopes are also unsafe.

The public is advised to be careful when viewing the solar eclipse on April 8^th due to the risk of permanently damaging your eyes.