BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – On the afternoon of April 8, as long as the clouds cooperate, the sky will put on an incredible solar show during the total solar eclipse. But to see the moon march across the sun’s surface, you’ll need to protect your eyes.
“You need to not look directly at the sun without some aid like a filter… or the sunglasses that you can wear. Or the other way is to use two pieces of paper and put a pinhole in one, turn away from the sun and project the sun on the paper,” said Jack St. Louis, the president of the Vermont Astronomical Society.
St. Louis says the only time they’ll ever tell people to look directly at the sun is during the eclipse’s totality. That’s why it’s important for you to know whether your location is in the path of totality, and then exactly when totality starts and ends in your town, so you know when it’s safe to remove your glasses or filters.
“If you use the glasses during totality you’ll miss it. So drop the glasses, put the viewers down and look directly at the sun. You’ll see the sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere and that light is a million times fainter than the surface of the sun, so it’s totally safe,” St. Louis said.
But before or after totality or if your town is not in totality at all, it’s not safe. And if you don’t have filters or an indirect viewing method like a pinhole camera, eye doctors say you’re at risk of eye damage that may be permanent.
“There are tiny cells in the retina which are photoreceptor cells. And those are the cells that perceive the light and turn it into a signal for our brain. And those are the cells that are damaged by the sunlight. And so even though the light may not feel like it’s very bright, even if there’s just a little rim of the sun visible, it can cause damage to those cells. And in some cases the damage can be permanent,” said Dr. Jeffery Young, an ophthalmologist.
Young says there’s really no way to reverse the damage to your eyes once it happens. Dark spots and distorted vision may stick around for weeks or months– or for life. His biggest concern is that right before totality people will assume they’re safe and drop their glasses too early.
“It’s best to sort of be a little bit on the safe side and only look when it’s definitely totally blocked and put it on the glasses back when it’s before it uncovers,” Young said.
But while he expects a slight uptick in calls after the eclipse from people concerned about possible eye damage, he says based on what happened during the 2017 eclipse in other parts of the country, he doesn’t think they’ll be eclipsed by calls.
“Certainly it’s something to get checked out if you have a permanent defect in your vision after the eclipse, that doesn’t go away after several minutes to several hours. I think it’s something that probably should be checked out,” Young said.
If you have eye surgery in the days right before the eclipse or you have an eye disease, check with your eye doctor if you’re concerned.
Some of you have also asked us where you can get the glasses. Click here for a list of verified suppliers.
You can always make a pinhole camera which will also allow you to view the eclipse indirectly. Click here for a demonstration of that from NASA.
Click here for all our eclipse coverage to help you get ready for the big day.