Solar Eclipse

[GeneChing]

Report: Some patients treated for putting sunblock in their eyes during eclipse
News Staff
Posted: Aug 23, 2017 06:25 PM EDT
Updated: Aug 23, 2017 06:25 PM EDT



Those experiencing blurred or impaired vision after watching the solar eclipse may want to see an eye doctor.

Nurse Practioner Trish Patterson told our sister station KRCR it usually takes 24 hours before people start noticing symptoms, including visual defects or blurriness.

Pain is not expected because there aren't pain receptors in the retina.

Patterson said they treat looking directly into the sun the same as a welder's flash.

So far, she said they haven't had any patients with damage from looking at the eclipse, but they've had a few customers experience pain after they put sunscreen in their eye Monday since they did not have protective glasses.

"One of my colleagues at moonlight here stated yesterday that they had patients presenting at their clinic that put sunscreen on their eyeball, and presented that they were having pain and they were referred to an ophthalmologist," Patterson said.

She said it only takes a few seconds of staring directly at the sun for retina damage.

Other signs to look out for dark spots in the center of vision and cloudiness.

People experiencing those symptoms should get checked right away with a thorough eye exam using a slit lamp, and visit an ophthalmologist.

Most apt use of sunglass smiley ever.

thanks rett2!

[Esvol]

I believe that in times of solar eclipse this is a magical time and miracles can happen

[MasterKiller]

I drove to Jefferson City, MO for the eclipse. We had clear skies and an excellent view of 100% totality. Truly amazing.

[GeneChing]

Here's how to watch the total solar eclipse from anywhere under the sun
By Scottie Andrew and Brian Ries, CNN
Updated 7:34 AM ET, Tue July 2, 2019


A total solar eclipse will shut out light for four minutes in parts of Chile and Argentina. Here's how to watch without making the trek.
(CNN)No need to break out the eclipse glasses this year (unless you live within the path of totality): Astronomy lovers can livestream Tuesday's total solar eclipse over South America from the comfort of just about anywhere with WiFi.

Here are a few options

The Exploratorium museum in San Francisco is partnering with NASA to live stream the eclipse as the moon moves between the Earth and Sun to block the Sun's light, leaving areas in its path in darkness for four and a half minutes.
Their coverage begins Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET across three channels: one for live telescope views from an observatory in Vicuna, Chile, and two more for commentary in English and Spanish. NASA Television will also carry the English-language coverage on its channel.
The European Southern Observatory will stream its own live coverage of the event from its facility in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Reservations are full for in-person observatory viewing.
The eclipse will be visible in its totality in a narrow 70-mile radius from La Serena, Chile, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 4:38 p.m. and 4:44 p.m. ET.
Along with Argentina and Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay will experience a partial solar eclipse, as well as parts of Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and Panama, according to NASA.
August 2017 marked the last time all of North America caught a glimpse of a total solar eclipse. The path of totality ran from Oregon to South Carolina—the first time in 99 years a total solar eclipse crossed the Atlantic and Pacific.

Too busy to watch today.

[GeneChing]

A little dated because this was Tuesday is long past, but there's time.

3 Eclipses Are Coming to North America in the Next 5 Years — Here's When and Where to See Them
Tuesday's totality was the first of two in a row in South America, but North America will get solar eclipses in 2021, 2023 and 2024.
BY JAMIE CARTER JULY 03, 2019


VW PICS/GETTY IMAGES

Everyone’s going eclipse-crazy. The first total solar eclipse since August 2017’s “Great American Eclipse,” Tuesday's dramatic eclipse in the southern hemisphere reminded many North Americans of the events of that summer day two years ago. This stunning celestial event is a great excuse to travel, but did you know that North America is now in a “golden age” of solar eclipses?

What is a solar eclipse?
Despite the sun being roughly 400 times larger than the moon, it’s also about 400 times further away from Earth. The moon’s orbit of Earth is tilted slightly from the path the sun takes through our sky, but it does intersect. Just occasionally, a new moon gets exactly between Earth and the sun, and a solar eclipse occurs.

When is the next eclipse in North America?
The next solar eclipse that will be visible from North America is coming on June 10, 2021 when a partial solar eclipse will be viewable from the north-eastern U.S. and Canada. The experience will be a little like in 2017, with solar eclipse glasses essential throughout the event, though this one happens at sunrise. Those in New York and Boston will have to be awake at 5:30 a.m. to see a 73-percent eclipsed sun appear on the eastern horizon. Montreal and Ottawa, Canada will see an 80-percent eclipsed sun. However, the epicenter is in Ontario, Canada, where the event will be a rather special “Ring of Fire” eclipse, also known as an annular solar eclipse.

What is an annular solar eclipse?
It’s when the moon doesn’t quite cover the sun because it’s at the furthest point from Earth in its slightly elliptical monthly orbit, so it’s smaller in the sky. What observers in a narrow path across Earth’s surface see will be a perfect circle of light around the moon, though solar eclipse glasses must be worn at all times. Unless you can get to the ultra-remote Baffin Bay or Northwestern Passages, the best place to be on June 10, 2021 will be Polar Bear Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, where a perfect Ring of Fire will last for 3 minutes and 33 seconds from 5:57 a.m. with 94 percent of the sun obscured.

A “Ring of Fire” rehearsal
On Oct. 14, 2023, another annular solar eclipse will occur in North America. This time it will be much easier to see than in 2021, with another Ring of Fire lasting over four minutes visible across the western U.S. from Oregon through Nevada, Utah, Texas, New Mexico, as well as in Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Columbia and Brazil. Key tourist attractions crossed by this eclipse include Edzná, a Mayan temple in Mexico, and in the U.S., Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park, Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, and Arizona’s Monument Valley.

Los Angeles will see a 70-percent eclipsed sun at 9:24 a.m. while Las Vegas will see 82 percent, Denver 78 percent, Chicago 42 percent, Washington D.C. 29 percent, and New York 23 percent at 1:22 a.m. However, the epicenter of this event is going to be Texas, which will not only have a good chance of clear weather, but will also be staging a dress rehearsal for a much bigger, more important eclipse coming up just six months later. Austin will see an 88 percent partial solar eclipse at 11:54 a.m. while San Antonio will see an exact Ring of Fire. Lost Maples State Natural Area in Texas will also see that spectacle… and just six months later, it will see a “proper’” total solar eclipse.

Great North American Eclipse of 2024
This is the one to get excited about and, if you get yourself beneath a clear sky, it will provide you with that long transcendental totality you always wanted. Called the “Great North American Eclipse” because it also crosses Canada and Mexico, the events of April 8, 2024 could be era-defining unforgettable. At lunchtime totality will sweep across Mazatlán, Durango, and Coahuila in Mexico, then Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont, and Maine, ending over New Brunswick and Newfoundland in Canada.

Austin and Dallas, Texas, will enjoy totality for over four minutes (twice that of 2017’s “Great American Eclipse”), and only slightly less will be visible from Indianapolis, Niagara Falls, and Montreal. Just like in 2017, anyone standing outside of the 100 miles-wide path of totality will see a partial solar eclipse. New York will see an 89-percent eclipsed sun, while Los Angeles will see 49 percent, Las Vegas 51 percent, Denver 65 percent, Washington D.C. 87 percent, Columbus, Ohio 99 percent, and San Antonio, Texas a staggeringly close 99.9 percent. However, these are not the places to remain in… get yourself to the path of totality. Less than 100 percent might as well be 0 percent.

Jamie Carter is editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

The physical sensations of watching a total solar eclipse

APRIL 1, 20243:00 AM ET
Regina G. Barber


Science writer David Baron witnesses his first total solar eclipse in Aruba, 1998. He says seeing one is "like you've left the solar system and are looking back from some other world."
Paul Myers

David Baron can pinpoint the first time he got addicted to chasing total solar eclipses, when the moon completely covers up the sun. It was 1998 and he was on the Caribbean island of Aruba. "It changed my life. It was the most spectacular thing I'd ever seen," he says.

Baron, author of the 2017 book American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World, wants others to witness its majesty too. On April 8, millions of people across North America will get that chance — a total solar eclipse will appear in the sky. Baron promises it will be a surreal, otherworldly experience. "It's like you've left the solar system and are looking back from some other world."

Baron, who is a former NPR science reporter, talks to Life Kit about what to expect when viewing a total solar eclipse, including the sensations you may feel and the strange lighting effects in the sky. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.


Baron views the beginning of a solar eclipse with friends in Western Australia in 2023. Baron says getting to see the solar corona during a total eclipse is "the most dazzling sight in the heavens."

Photographs by David Baron; Bronson Arcuri, Kara Frame, CJ Riculan/NPR; Collage by Becky Harlan/NPR
What does it feel like to experience a total solar eclipse — those few precious minutes when the moon completely covers up the sun?

It is beautiful and absolutely magnificent. It comes on all of a sudden. As soon as the moon blocks the last rays of the sun, you're plunged into this weird twilight in the middle of the day. You look up and the blue sky has been torn away. On any given day, the blue sky overhead acts as a screen that keeps us from seeing what's in space. And suddenly that's gone. So you can look into the middle of the solar system and see the sun and the planets together.

Can you tell me about the sounds and the emotions you're feeling?

A total solar eclipse is so much more than something you just see with your eyes. It's something you experience with your whole body. [With the drop in sunlight], birds will be going crazy. Crickets may be chirping. If you're around other people, they're going to be screaming and crying [with all their emotions from seeing the eclipse]. The air temperature drops because the sunlight suddenly turns off. And you're immersed in the moon's shadow. It doesn't feel real.

In your 2017 Ted Talk, you said you felt like your eyesight was failing in the moments before totality. Can you go into that a little more?

The lighting effects are very weird. Before you get to the total eclipse, you have a progressive partial eclipse as the moon slowly covers the sun. So over the course of an hour [or so], the sunlight will be very slowly dimming. It's as if you're in a room in a house and someone is very slowly turning down the dimmer switch. For most of that time your eyes are adjusting and you don't notice it. But then there's a point at which the light's getting so dim that your eyes can't adjust, and weird things happen. Your eyes are less able to see color. It's as if the landscape is losing its color. Also there's an effect where the shadows get very strange.


Crescent-shaped shadows cast by the solar eclipse before it reaches totality appear on a board at an eclipse-viewing event in Antelope, Ore., 2017.
Kara Frame and CJ Riculan/NPR

You see these crescents on the ground.

There are two things that happen. One is if you look under a tree, the spaces between leaves or branches will act as pinhole projectors. So you'll see tiny little crescents everywhere. But there's another effect. As the sun goes from this big orb in the sky to something much smaller, shadows grow sharper. As you're nearing the total eclipse, if you have the sun behind you and you look at your shadow on the ground, you might see individual hairs on your head. It's just very odd.

Some people might say that seeing the partial eclipse is just as good. They don't need to go to the path of totality.

A partial solar eclipse is a very interesting experience. If you're in an area where you see a deep partial eclipse, the sun will become a crescent like the moon. You can only look at it with eye protection. Don't look at it with the naked eye. The light can get eerie. It's fun, but it is not a thousandth as good as a total eclipse.

A total eclipse is a fundamentally different experience, because it's only when the moon completely blocks the sun that you can actually take off the eclipse glasses and look with the naked eye at the sun.

And you will see a sun you've never seen before. That bright surface is gone. What you're actually looking at is the sun's outer atmosphere, the solar corona. It's the most dazzling sight in the heavens. It's this beautiful textured thing. It looks sort of like a wreath or a crown made out of tinsel or strands of silk. It shimmers in space. The shape is constantly changing. And you will only see that if you're in the path of the total eclipse.

So looking at a partial eclipse is not the same?

It is not at all the same. Drive those few miles. Get into the path of totality.

This is really your chance to see a total eclipse. The next one isn't happening across the U.S. for another 20 years.

The next significant total solar eclipse in the United States won't be until 2045. That one will go from California to Florida and will cross my home state of Colorado. I've got it on my calendar.

The digital story was written by Malaka Gharib and edited by Sylvie Douglis and Meghan Keane. The visual editor is Beck Harlan. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and sign up for our newsletter.

NPR will be sharing highlights here from across the NPR Network throughout the day Monday if you're unable to get out and see it in real time.

Correction
April 3, 2024
In a previous audio version of this story, we made reference to an upcoming 2025 total solar eclipse. The solar eclipse in question will take place in 2045.

We only get a 30% off out here in Cali. How about you?