Staring at the sun damage how to#
Our sister site has a complete guide for how to view an eclipse safely. NEVER look at a partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. REMEMBER: Looking directly at the sun, even when it is partially covered by the moon, can cause serious eye damage or blindness. Still, in theory, a person could become legally blind - vision of 20/200 or worse - from staring at the sun. (Total blindness refers to the loss of both a person's central and peripheral vision.) Instead, only a person's central vision is typically affected by solar retinopathy, he said. Russell Van Gelder, a clinical spokesman for the AAO and director of the University of Washington Medicine Eye Institute in Seattle, told Live Science in July. It's unlikely that a person would become totally blind from looking at the sun, Dr. The fovea is a spot in the retina that's responsible for sharp, central vision - if it's damaged, it can lead to blurry vision or, in more severe cases, a central blind spot in the eye, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO).īut Trump's glance at the mesmerizing eclipse wouldn't cause him to lose his vision entirely. The damage occurs because the lens of the eye focuses the sun's rays on a single point at the back of the eye, called the fovea. Looking directly at the sun can lead to a condition called solar retinopathy. The sun’s magnetic field changes over a period of 11 years, meaning. "Once retina tissue is destroyed, like brain tissue, it cannot regenerate, resulting in permanent central vision loss … if vision loss has occurred after viewing a solar eclipse, one should promptly see an ophthalmologist, an eye doctor who can recognize the symptoms and signs of solar burns to the retina," the piece said. When this occurs, we get explosions on the sun, known as solar flares, as powerful as a billion nuclear bombs exploding together. Bressler was the senior author of the piece. Indeed, "even a few seconds of such viewing can temporarily or permanently burn the center of the retina," according to a short piece in the journal JAMA published Aug.