Eye safety for the total solar eclipse

Eclipse

This time, believe the social media hype.

The message is for real - regular sunglasses are NOT enough to protect your eyes!

NASA has detailed information on their website about the safest ways to view the eclipse which arrives August 21.

Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun; they transmit thousands of times too much sunlight.

Finding American Astronomical Society (AAS) approved glasses and filters may be hard at this point, especially at a reasonable cost. NASA has a simple method for viewing without hunting down equipment called pinhole projection.

"Simply cross the outstretched, slightly open fingers of one hand over the outstretched, slightly open fingers of the other, creating a waffle pattern. With your back to the sun, look at your hands’ shadow on the ground. The little spaces between your fingers will project a grid of small images on the ground, showing the sun as a crescent during the partial phases of the eclipse."

You should not look up into the sky until there are no shadows, at which time the brightness of the eclipse is equal to that of the moon.

eclipse
Credit: NASA

Still not confident on safety? NASA is providing a live stream on multiple platforms for anyone who is not in the viewing vicinity or still has concerns. Find out places to watch here. Mobile users, check out the Total Solar Eclipse 2017 App from Exploratorium in iTunes or Play Store which will included a telescope view as well as other apps.

 

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