Experts warn that you cannot look directly into the sun without proper protection.
According to ScientificAmerican, that’s because even though the sun is 93 million miles (or 150 million kilometers) away, it can still cause serious eye damage, even irreversible damage.
Looking directly at the sun can cause eye damage.
Dr Russell Van Gelde, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and director of the University of Washington Eye Institute, in Seattle, said: cause eye damage”.
On August 21, 2017, the Moon will be in position between the Sun and Earth creating total and semi-total solar eclipses in many parts of the United States. This will be the first time since 1918 that a total solar eclipse will be visible across the United States (from the West coast to the East). This information is confirmed by the American Astronomical Society (AAS). In addition to the areas of total eclipse, other places will see the sun partially obscured.
No matter where you observe the eclipse, it is most important that you do not look directly in the direction of the sun with your eyes. For a better understanding of the latter, imagine a child’s game of using a magnifying glass to focus the energy from sunlight and create a hole in the paper.
Focusing the sun’s rays on a single spot generates a lot of energy.
” Focusing the sun’s rays on a single spot produces a lot of energy, ” says Van Gelder. And the lens in your eye is 4 times more powerful than the magnifying glass that children often play with.
“If you had a lens with a high degree of focus and pointed it directly at the sun, the energy would become so great,” he said, enough to literally burn the retina or light-sensitive cells. at the back of the eye.
Patients with this condition are often called retinopathy (retinopathy can have many other causes) – when the eyes have been damaged by the rays of light from the sun. Damage occurs when photons (light particles) create free radicals, which can kill cells. The damage occurs in the fovea, a location in the retina responsible for sharpness, which is the center of vision. As a result, sunlight-induced retinopathy can blur vision or cause blind spots in the eye.
Many patients with solar retinopathy recover on their own, but some experience long-term vision impairment. For example, in a 2002 study of 15 patients with solar retinopathy in the UK from viewing a solar eclipse in 1999, only 2 of these had normal vision when examined from 8 to 12 months later. Some have a normal eye in one eye and a small blind spot in the other eye that affects their vision.
In theory, a person could become blind – vision is only 20/200 or worse – after staring at the sun. But staring at the sun cannot lead to total blindness because solar retinopathy does not affect peripheral vision.
If you want to look at the sun, be sure to use protective equipment.
Because of the dangers, the AAO recommends that people never look directly at the sun. There is an exception to this rule – if you are in the path of a total eclipse, you may be able to look directly at the sun with the naked eye for a short time , meaning your view is blocked. by the moon. (The length of the eclipse will vary depending on where you’re viewing the eclipse, but at the very least, the event will last about 2 minutes and 40 seconds.)
But there is a way to view a total solar eclipse safely, using special “eclipse glasses” or portable solar-filtered viewing devices (including for total and partial eclipses). or look at the sun normally). The following four manufacturers have been certified for “eclipse glasses” and portable solar-filtered viewing devices: Rainbow Symphony, American Paper Optics, Thousand Oaks Optical and TSE 17.
Again, remember never to look at the sun through an unfiltered camera, telescope, or binoculars, regardless of whether or not you’re wearing eclipse glasses. Because these devices will focus the sun’s rays even stronger than your eyes can do and this will lead to serious eye damage.