Watching the eclipse safely

Only a quarter of the sun will be visible over the Bay Area during the Aug. 21 solar eclipse, but viewing it directly still will require special protections to avoid eye damage. Here are some safety tips from the American Astronomical Society:

View only through special-purpose solar filters, such as eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer. For a list of American Astronomical Society-approved vendors: www.eclipse.aas.org/resources/ solar-filters

Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun.

If you have eclipse glasses or solar filters, inspect them for scratches, punctures, tears or other damage. In any of these exist, discard them. Always supervise children using solar filters. Do not look at the partially eclipsed sun through an unfiltered camera, telescope, binoculars or other optical device. Here are other safe ways to view the partial eclipse:

Hold an ordinary kitchen colander overhead with its bowl turned up. Don’t look at the sun but rather at the ground. Images of the eclipse will be projected through the colander’s holes onto the pavement.

Similarly, a leafy tree can act as a pinhole projector, casting images of the eclipse onto the ground. See the accompanying graphic for other ways to create a pinhole projector.