Safety is key when viewing today’s solar eclipse

While many people are excited to watch Monday’s solar eclipse, you are being reminded of safety tricks that will ensure no damage is done while looking at the sun.

The eclipse begins at 10:22 a.m. on Monday August 21, with the maximum eclipse at 11:34 a.m.

Dr. Kevin Hesterman, optometrist Red Deer Eyecare, said the biggest thing to remember is never to look directly at the sun, let alone do it without some kind of protection.

“Especially when an eclipse is occurring, we can burn our retina, the back of the eye, by looking straight at the sun,” said Hesterman.

He reminds people that sunglasses are not adequate protection when viewing an event like this, noting, “There are eclipse viewers which are many times darker than sunglasses and specifically designed to look at the eclipse.”

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There are other options, of course, for viewing an eclipse. One of them is to view the live stream of the eclipse as it happens online. Many sources, including NASA themselves, will have a live feed providing an indirect, but in-time, way of watching the eclipse.

Jason Zackowski, science teacher at Lindsay Thurber and at Zed Science on Facebook, said this is an amazing event happening from a science perspective even though we are not in the path of a total eclipse.

“We are going to get a really good partial eclipse and the sky will darken which is mind boggling in the middle of the day,” said Zackowski.

While Zackowski added that there are a lucky few who managed to get the proper eclipse glasses, people still need to ensure that they have the correct coding on them and that they verify they are for “direct observation of the sun.”

“There are people thinking that they can use sunglasses or those glasses from the movie theater, but those don’t work. They have to have this [pictured] code on them,” he added.

Because of the length of the eclipse and the potential for prolonged exposure, it is imperative that people take the precautions to witness the remarkable event safely, Zackowski says.

One way people can do this, especially those with young children wanting to view the event, is with a pinhole projector. Zackowski said one of the easiest ways to manage this type of viewing experiences is with a colander (with larger holes, to strain spaghetti) and a white piece of heavy cardstock.

Simply by holding the colander over the piece of paper a person can view the eclipse as the moon passes in front of the sun. The shadows of the holes of the colander will appear as miniature eclipses, making this a quick and easy viewing tool.

For those a little more intent on watching the event, Zackowski said a pair of binoculars, some cardstock, a tripod and a chopstick can get them there.

“Get some bungee cord and attach the binoculars to a tripod and then a chopstick that runs in the middle for two reasons; the main reason is that it makes it impossible to look at the sun through the binoculars it’s there like ‘hey dummy don’t look at the sun’.”

By aiming the chopstick correctly it will cast no shadow and when the eclipse takes place a magnified image of the eclipse will appear on the cardstock. 

Welding goggles are another option but they have to be rated 14 or higher to be adequate for the prolonged viewing of the eclipse.