Those who want to watch the eclipse on April 8 should prepare, experts say. Anyone looking up to the sky should be wearing a pair of safe solar viewing glasses to protect from the sun’s ultra…
A goose wanders past oversized eclipse viewing glasses on March 13, 2024, outside the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Nicole Bajic was completing her medical residency at the University of Chicago when she briefly ducked out between surgery training classes to watch the 2017 solar eclipse darken the skies. At the time, she didn’t fully appreciate how much excitement surrounded the event.
“The recommendation is that the absolute only time you can look at the eclipse during totality is when the moon is completely blocking the sun,” Bajic said. “The second that it’s moving, and you might see a tiny glimpse of the sun peeking out, it’s not safe any longer. So you need to look away immediately, and put back the eclipse glasses.”Molly Ryan, 25, left, and Giselle Hilgert, 24, both of Chicago, view the eclipse Aug. 21, 2017, from North Avenue Beach.
“It’s very eerie,” said NASA volunteer educator and eclipse chaser Gordon Telepun. “It’s unexplainable because there’s not really another situation where your total ambience lighting can change so it looks like everything is gray or silvery.” This effect, named after the Czech physiologist who discovered it, occurs as cones struggle to absorb light under the moon’s shadow and rods start activating nighttime vision. This desaturates the colors the human eye perceives, decreasing the reds, slightly increasing the greens and blues, and creating a gray hue.
“Tell your friends and family who you’re going to go to the eclipse with to wear bright colors — ridiculously bright colors,” he said. “A combination of reds and greens, maybe some blues and some yellows, if you want to see the Purkinje effect.” Often associated with eclipse viewing is a serious injury to the eye’s retina that can cause temporary or permanent blurry vision from just a few seconds of looking at the sun. Those at higher risk for this retinal burn, called solar retinopathy, include people taking medication like tetracycline for acne or rosacea.
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