Eye protection a must for the coming total solar eclipse
DEAR DR. ROACH: My mother is very concerned about the upcoming solar eclipse; due to all the warnings about not watching it with the naked eye, she is afraid that one of us will “accidentally look at the sky and go blind.” All the articles on the internet seem to deal with eye safety while actually watching the eclipse. While I understand that it would be best not to look at the sun at all, I am pretty sure that accidentally glancing at it for a second or two would be unlikely to cause permanent, total blindness. Would you be able to confirm this so that I can reassure her? — B.M.
ANSWER: It is never safe to look at the sun without eye protection when any part of the sun’s bright disk is visible. The only time it is safe to look at the sun during a total eclipse is when the sun is totally obscured by the moon.
However, the sun is no more dangerous during an eclipse than it is when there is no eclipse, and we all catch a glimpse of it from time to time. The concern is that, during the rare event that is a solar eclipse, we will be so interested that we will forget all the warnings and stare at the unprotected sun for a prolonged time, which can cause damage, sometimes permanent, to the retina. Fortunately, there are several ways to safely look at an eclipse.
One that anyone can do is to make a pinhole camera, which keeps you from looking directly at the sun. Or, for a few dollars, you can get a pair of ISO-certified eclipse-viewing glasses. These can be ordered from https://tinyurl.com/eye-eclipse and many other places, but the site above has lots of good information about eye safety.