![Simple kid staring at the sun](https://loka.nahovitsyn.com/238.jpg)
Solar eclipse visors or glasses, which typically reduce the amount of light reaching the eye by a factor of 250,000, are necessary to cut down the intensity of the light to safe levels, Chou said. (Image credit: supot phanna/Shutterstock)Īnd a regular pair of shades will not be sufficient. Protective eye gear is a must when viewing the solar eclipse. Unless you're one of the few people who is in the path of totality of the solar eclipse - meaning the moon completely blocks out all light from the sun - you are at risk of sustaining damage from staring at the eclipse without eye protection.
![simple kid staring at the sun simple kid staring at the sun](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/e8/05/84e8054ccfb40f6b5fe416d57790e7b2.jpg)
![simple kid staring at the sun simple kid staring at the sun](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Wdob58Y94OE/maxresdefault.jpg)
Similarly, a survey done after the 1999 solar eclipse in Europe found just a handful of cases of reported solar trauma from British ophthalmologists. In 1979, Chou asked ophthalmologists and optometrists to send in case reports from people whose eyesight had been damaged by a solar eclipse that year. While staring at the sun can clearly cause eye trauma, it's hard to know how many people actually experience this effect.
SIMPLE KID STARING AT THE SUN LICENSE
A study conducted after a 1976 solar eclipse in Turkey found that, long after the injury, about 10 percent of people with related eye damage still could not read letters on a license plate about 25 yards (23 meters) away. He has heard of patients who first reported symptoms the next morning when they tried to read their morning paper and couldn't, or tried to shave and could not see their face in the mirror, he said.įor some people, this effect is temporary, while others will sustain permanent damage, and there are currently no established tests to predict who will fall into which group, he said. "The next morning - that's when you suddenly realize that part of your retina has been injured," Chou said. No pain receptors fire when the injury occurs, and vision may be normal for several hours afterward, as damaged cells slowly shut down, Chou said. People who sustain eye damage from staring at the sun may have difficulty seeing details, though they may have no awareness of the injury until a day later. (Viewing the sun during a solar eclipse without eye protection, but not through a telescope, will result in a smaller retina temperature rise, the researchers noted.)
![simple kid staring at the sun simple kid staring at the sun](https://www.sarahhalstead.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/IMG_6449-1024x683.jpg)
"Thermal burn is caused by looking at the sun through a telescope or through other optical aids, which can cause a temperature rise of 10 to 25 degrees Celsius in the retina," according to a 1999 study in the British Medical Journal. (One difference is that infrared light doesn't play a role in solar-eclipse injuries, as it does in heating via magnifying glass, he said.) People who sustain thermal damage have exposed their bodies to the same physical phenomenon that occurs when kids use a magnifying glass to focus light to burn grass or ants, Chou said. Some people have even sustained crescent-shaped burns in their eyes, which mimics the shape of the solar eclipse. Those who have been staring particularly long at the sun through a telescope or other optical aid may even experience thermal damage, where they are literally overheating or cooking the eye cells, which causes those cells to die. If the metabolic activity of those cones is disrupted significantly enough, the cells will stop functioning. The light-sensitive cells that provide detailed color daylight vision, such as the cone cells, absorb light via photoreceptors and then translate that signal into an electrical impulse that is sent to the brain and perceived as a visual signal, Chou said.īut during a solar eclipse, "there's so much light hitting those cells that it actually disrupts the parts of the light-sensitive cells that are responsible for that transduction into a nervous signal," Chou said. Whenever someone stares at the sun, light from the sun hits the eye and focuses at the machinery called the fovea, which is located at the back of the eye. During these rare events, people know they are watching something special and essentially force themselves to look, he said. However, for once-in-a-blue-moon events like a total solar eclipse, "it's possible for you to override that aversion reflex," Chou said. "Our brains are wired to avoid looking at very, very bright things like the sun," Chou said. Usually, people will glance at the sun and then look away quickly. The difference is that most of us have a natural reflex to look away from the sun if we stare too long. Staring at the sun during a solar eclipse isn't much different from staring at the sun during a normal day.
![Simple kid staring at the sun](https://loka.nahovitsyn.com/238.jpg)