A Timmins optometrist is urging us not to look at Monday afternoon’s solar eclipse.
Dr. Thierry Guindon says you could burn the retina at the back of your eyeball.
On a normal day, the brightness of the sun prevents you from looking at it before the light can cause damage.
“What happens with an eclipse,” he explains. “because the light is greatly reduced, people will have the ability to kind of look at it without noticing that it’s damaging their eyes, because they can tolerate the brightness.”
One safe way to observe the moon crossing in front of the sun is through a pinhole poked in a shoebox, looking at an image of the celestial event.
“So you’re not looking at it directly, so it doesn’t burn the eyes. It’s only if you want to look up at the sky, looking at it directly, that’s when you need those very specific filtered eclipse glasses.”
In the full interview below, more from Dr. Guindon about looking at the eclipse, and one method you might think is safe, but it isn’t.