Do you need to wear sunglasses when viewing a solar eclipse?

Question

Do you need to wear sunglasses when viewing a solar eclipse?

Answer 1

No, you should NEVER watch a solar eclipse with sunglasses. Dangerous levels of ultraviolet and infrared radiation can pass through and seriously damage your corneas and retinas. There are however solar filters you can use that are worn like a pair of sunglasses that reduce the intensity of the light to safe levels, while blocking the UV and IR radiation, allowing you to watch an eclipse safely. Otherwise a welding visor with a #12 or darker welding glass can be used. Don't use developed film or other materials as a filter, you don't know if it blocks dangerous radiation or not and it's not worth gambling with your vision.  It's best to use a solar filter intended for observing the Sun. You must not look at the Sun without proper protection, even if the Sun's 99 percent eclipsed. To do otherwise is akin to looking into a arc from an arc welder or a high intensity LASER beam, with disastrous results. Once totality begins, you can then look at the eclipsed Sun safely without any filters. If you want to use binoculars or telescopes to watch the eclipse, the same safety rules apply, except you must use a filter over the front of the binoculars or telescope, removing it only during totality. Be very careful to ensure the filter's securely attached, and pay attention to the time because totality ends suddenly.

Answer 2

Don't rely on sunglasses to protect your eyes during a solar eclipse. Get a welder's mask instead.

Answer 3

You should NEVER look directly at a solar eclipse....even with sunglasses it could lead to blindness.

Answer 4

yes, otherwise you can damage your optic nerves

Answer 5

Viewing the Sun during partial and annular eclipses (and during total eclipses outside the brief period of totality) requires special eye protection, or indirect viewing methods. The Sun's disk can be viewed using appropriate filtration to block the harmful part of the Sun's radiation. Sunglasses are not safe, since they do not block the harmful and invisible infrared radiation which causes retinal damage. Only properly designed and certified solar filters should ever be used for direct viewing of the Sun's disk.

The safest way to view the Sun's disk is by indirect projection. This can be done by projecting an image of the disk onto a white piece of paper or card using a pair of binoculars (with one of the lenses covered), a telescope, or another piece of cardboard with a small hole in it (about 1 mm diameter), often called a pinhole camera. The projected image of the Sun can then be safely viewed; this technique can be used to observe sunspots, as well as eclipses. However, care must be taken to ensure that no one looks through the projector (telescope, pinhole, etc.) directly. Viewing the Sun's disk on a video display screen (provided by a video camera or digital camera) is safe, although the camera itself may be damaged by direct exposure to the Sun. The optical viewfinders provided with some video and digital cameras are not safe.

In the partial eclipse path one will not be able to see the spectacular corona or nearly complete darkening of the sky, yet, depending on how much of the sun's disk is obscured, some darkening may be noticeable. If two-thirds or more of the sun is obscured, then an effect can be observed by which the daylight appears to be dim, as if the sky were overcast, yet objects still cast sharp shadows.

Totality



Diamond ring    It is safe to observe the total phase of a solar eclipse directly with the unaided eye, binoculars or a telescope, when the Sun's photosphere is completely covered by the Moon; indeed, it is too dim to be seen through filters. The Sun's faint corona will be visible, and the chromosphere, solar prominences, and possibly even a solar flare may be seen. However, viewing the Sun after totality can be dangerous.



Baily's beads.When the shrinking visible part of the photosphere becomes very small, Baily's beads will occur. These are caused by the sunlight still being able to reach Earth through lunar valleys, but no longer where mountains are present. Totality then begins with the diamond ring effect, the last bright flash of sunlight

Answer 6

You can seriously damage your eyes when watching the eclipse, even if you are wearing sunglasses.  It is possible to get hold of EXTREMELY dark glasses for watching eclipses, but it is safer to watch them indirectly by reflection.

If this ever becomes a real possibility, seek out the best possible advice to avoid injury.

Answer 7

it doesn't matter because you should NOT be looking at the sun