Optometrist advises against staring at eclipse
A local optometrist warns Garland County residents to not look directly at today’s solar eclipse with the unaided eye, or risk permanent damage to their vision.
Dr. Scott Seller said staring directly at the solar eclipse can lead to lasting complications, and compares it to staring directly at the sun on a clear day.
According to NASA, the eclipse’s shadow, which will last close to three hours, will be cast over this region of the United States between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. today. Mid-America Science Museum predicts the eclipse to reach totality in Hot Springs around 1:15 p.m.
During totality, the moon passes in front of the sun for a few minutes, concealing it from vision and creating a solar “ring” that shines out from behind the silhouetted moon. Full totality will only be experienced by a path no more than 168 miles wide that runs across the United States from Oregon to South Carolina.
Even though Hot Springs is not in the eclipse’s path of totality, the sun will be 86 percent covered by the moon during that time. Seller said anyone in the city and surrounding areas who chooses to stare at the eclipse will put their eyesight in danger.
“There’s enough energy, radiation, light coming through that you could damage yourself,” he said.
Seller said the lens inside of a person’s eye focuses the sun’s
rays, both while looking at the sun on a clear day and a solar eclipse, and burns the eye’s central retina — specifically, the macula, which is responsible for one’s field of vision.
He compared it to burning a leaf with a magnifying glass, noting, “It takes literally five or
10 or eight seconds for it to start burning whatever you’re aiming at or focusing it on. That would be the same analogy as staring at the sun.”
Seller said he has treated patients who have damaged their eyes through staring at the sun. He said such exposure to solar rays has visually impaired some of his patients to 20/50 vision.
“They admitted staring at the sun when they were a kid, and it burned their macula,” he said. “It’s a permanent thing.”
Seller suggested a handful of methods for safely enjoying the eclipse, including making a pinhole in a piece of paper and holding it up to the eclipse so that it casts its shadow on the ground or viewing the eclipse through welder’s goggles that meet international eclipse viewing standards.
On its website, NASA emphasized homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses do not meet the standard for eclipse viewing. The website said ISO 12312-2 is the international safety standard for viewing, and instructed readers not to look at the eclipse through any kind of unfiltered medium, such as a camera.
“Once you burn your retina, it’s gonna scar, and you’re not gonna see well again,” he said.
For more information on safety precautions for the eclipse and specific times to view it, visit eclipse2017.nasa.gov.