| Don't look up! North America prepares for solar eclipse, but eye damage victim has dire warning
AP Photo
This picture combination shows five stages of a solar eclipse.
THE RULES
An annular solar eclipse will unfold in the skies across North America on Monday. Some tips for safely viewing the eclipse: - Get two thin but stiff pieces of white cardboard. Cut a small hole in one piece of cardboard so that sunlight can shine through onto the second piece of cardboard. Watch the spectacle unfold on the second piece cardboard. Do not look through the hole at the sun. - Wear welders' goggles with a rating of 14 or higher, which are relatively inexpensive, if you want to look directly at the eclipse. - Specially designed solar filters allow a very small fraction of sunlight to pass through. Look at the sun briefly and then look away while wearing them. |
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By Tara Brautigam / The Canadian Press Toronto - Dr. Stan Riome has a word of warning for anyone planning to take in Monday's solar eclipse: don't. The 79-year-old from southern Ontario permanently damaged his eyesight in 1936, when he and his classmates were let out of class to witness a solar eclipse. Unaware of the risks, Riome, 13 at the time, looked directly at the sun and his vision was forever altered. "When I look with my bad eye, I will see an area and the letters will be wavy," the former clinician and optometrist said in a recent interview. There are no pain receptors in the back of the eye, Riome says, so victims who have damaged their eyes may not know it for days. "If you're ignorant, not knowing any better, goodbye Charlie," he said. "It's gone forever." Astronomy enthusiasts across North America are preparing for the celestial shuffle on Monday. It's called an annular eclipse because the moon is far enough from Earth so that it appears slightly smaller than the sun and does not block it entirely. Weather permitting, those watching can expect to see an orange solar corona or crescent depending on location. It will be possible to see the eclipse throughout most of western and central North America. The view improves as you move southwest. Those in Victoria and Vancouver will have the best vantage point in Canada at 9 p.m. EDT on Monday. Optometrists and astronomy experts echo Riome's warning - those planning to watch the eclipse need to take proper precautions or risk permanently damaging their eyesight. "When they are injured, the first thing they notice is that they're not able to see peoples' faces, they're not able to read," said Dr. Ralph Chou, an optometry professor at the University of Waterloo. "Until the sun turns red, there is still potential for damage." The temptation to sneak a peek at the sun during the eclipse should be avoided unless you're wearing welders' goggles - no matter how fashionable the eyewear. "Ordinary sunglasses are not cool," said John Landstreet, physics and astronomy professor at the University of Western Ontario. "There are no special eclipse shades." More low-tech methods are advised, such as cutting holes in cardboard and projecting the glowing image on to the ground or wall. "It's very cheap but very satisfying," said Paul Delaney, a York University physics and astronomy professor. Annular eclipses, which happen around the world two to three times annually, offer little significance from a scientific standpoint. Nonetheless, some academics are excited. "It's the dance of the planets," Delaney said. "The moon, the Earth, the sun get into this dance where they more or less get into each other's way." It's a dance Riome urges people to avoid. "Go in the house, pull the blinds and look at it on the television," he said. |
