Consider Eye Safety When Planning To View the Solar Eclipse

While solar eclipses themselves are not rare, experiencing a total solar eclipse near your hometown is. Total solar eclipses occur at a specific point on the earth’s surface only once every 375 years.

Whether you plan to view a total solar eclipse or a partial solar eclipse, protecting your vision should be top of mind. Without the right eye protection, you risk permanently damaging your eyes and vision.

What is a solar eclipse?

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. Depending on where you are located, you may see a total eclipse where the moon completely covers the sun, or a partial eclipse where the moon blocks part of the sun.

How To Safely View a Solar Eclipse

You’re most likely to experience eye damage when improperly viewing a partial eclipse, or just before or after a total eclipse.

To protect your eyes, it’s important to wear eclipse glasses to view the solar eclipse. “Eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker than normal sunglasses and protect your eyes from the sun’s concentrated rays,” shares Michele Schlagheck, OD, ProMedica Physicians Vision Associates – Toledo.

Look for eclipse glasses that comply with the International Safety Standard (ISO) and have the marking “ISO 12312-2.” The American Astronomical Society has a list of verified sellers if you’re looking to buy a pair. Welding masks with a lens shade of 14 also provide adequate eye protection for viewing the eclipse.

“Watch for knockoffs when purchasing eclipse glasses. Always verify that they have the ISO marking before using them. Also, make sure they are not scratched in any way,” Dr. Schlagheck shares.

If you wear eyeglasses, eclipse glasses can be worn over your eyeglasses. Never look at an eclipse through a camera, telescope, binoculars or phone – even while wearing eclipse glasses. “The concentrated solar rays will be able to penetrate through the eclipse glasses and damage your eyes,” Dr. Schlagheck shares. “You can only look at an eclipse through these devices if they have the proper filter on the device.”

Although it’s safe to view an eclipse without proper eye protection during the totality phase of a total eclipse, we recommend keeping them on. Never remove your eclipse glasses while looking at the sun.

In summary, here are the dos and don’ts of eclipse viewing:

• Only use eclipse glasses with the marking ISO 12312-2 on them.
• If you wear eyeglasses, wear the eclipse glasses over your eye glasses.
• Never look at the eclipse through a camera, telescope, binoculars or phone, even if you are wearing eclipse glasses.
• Never look at the eclipse with naked eyes.
• Never remove your eclipse glasses while looking at the sun.

Risks of Improperly Viewing an Eclipse

Viewing a solar eclipse without proper eye protection can cause irreversible damage to your eyes and vision. A condition called eclipse blindness, or retinal burns, can result.

This condition causes damage or destruction to the cells in the retina (a layer of cells in the back of your eye). The effects can be temporary or permanent but are rarely reversible.

Symptoms of eclipse blindness or retinal burns include:

• Decreased vision.
• Distorted vision.
• Blurry vision.
• A persistent after-image.
• Missing area of vision, or a blind spot.

These symptoms may present immediately after viewing an eclipse, or a few days later.

“A lot of people think that if they take a quick look at the eclipse, look away and look back again, that damage to their eyes won’t occur,” Dr. Schlagheck explains. “This is not the case. Exposure can be cumulative, and damage can still occur.”

What To Do if Eye Damage Occurs

No treatments are available to improve eclipse blindness or retinal burns. Symptoms may improve with time if they are a result of swelling from the retinal burn, but they may never resolve completely.

If your symptoms don’t go away for a few days, Dr. Schlagheck recommends visiting your eye doctor. They will do a retinal scan to confirm if damage occurred.

“People often think that if they aren’t in the path of the total eclipse they don’t need eclipse glasses,” Dr. Schlagheck shares. “This is simply not true. You are at a greater risk of incurring eye damage when in the path of a partial eclipse. Always wear eclipse glasses when viewing an eclipse to protect your current and future eye health.”

Michele Schlagheck, OD
Dr. Schlagheck is an eye doctor with ProMedica Physicians Vision Associates – Toledo. View her profile.