Monday, April 8th is the solar eclipse, and Illinois is a top notch place to view it, especially down south.
As a Bruce Springsteen lyric once stated, “Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun.” But WHY is that? Neuhoff media went right to an expert, Dr. David Sola; from both OSF HealthCare and Chittick Eye Care. He says, the answer is NO, it is not okay to look at the eclipse with unprotected eyes even for a few seconds. It doesn’t matter how dark it is outside. Permanent damage can happen, and quickly. He says treat your eyes like an old fashioned camera, very carefully.
AUDIO: The retina has a lot of cells in it. And those cells are actually the ones that collect the light that goes through a lens, and processes it to send images to the brain. Those cells are very sensitive. And if you expose them to too much light, you can actually kill cells in the retina, and you can basically damage the film in your camera permanently. And it’s what we call phototoxicity. It’s like too much light gets in the cells and can kill them. And unfortunately we don’t have a great treatment for it.
Dr. Sola also says regular sunglasses, or even those temporary plastic glasses an eye doctor might give you after your pupils are dilated, are not good enough.
AUDIO: The solar eclipse glasses are very specific glasses that have an extra layer of protection to make sure that you don’t get, again, that scary solar retinopathy, that scary damage to the film in the back of the eye.
Dr. Sola says one thing you can do is google Chittick Eye Care and find the nearest location, because they are making the special eclipse sunglasses available. For the record, down in Carbondale, the totality of the eclipse is scheduled to begin at 1:59 PM. But wherever you are, don’t get “Blinded by the Light.”
