DELAWARE, Ohio — Will the sun explode my eyes during the total solar eclipse if I look directly into it? Sounds a bit harsh of a question. Unless you are astrophysicist Don Stevens.
“Your eyeball is wet and squishy,” said Stevens, director of Perkins Observatory at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware. “It will flash heat, the fluids in the eyeball will explode your eyeball out of the socket.”
In other words, looking at the sun directly is dangerous and could permanently blind you, Stevens adds.
“There are ways to use a telescope safely, but you need special filters,” he says.
But that doesn’t mean you can wear special solar eclipse safety glasses and look through a telescope at the same time. The magnification of the telescope will burn through the plastic portion of the glasses in seconds.
“Do not point your phone, your eyeballs, telescope, anything at the sun during the eclipse,” Stevens reiterates.
Experts at COSI in Columbus agree.
“Your phone camera will be damaged,” said Kristy Williams, director of communications for COSI.
“It’ll hurt your eyes looking through your screen,” Williams added. “The reason behind this is that there’s no pain receptors in your eyes and the UV radiation that’s going directly into them is harmful and you’re not going to find out until later.”
The safest way to view Monday’s total solar eclipse is with solar eclipse glasses that are ISO-rated 12312-2.
But Williams offers another unique solution.
“If you have a strainer at home, you literally just hold that out and as the sun’s light comes down with the shadows, you’ll see the eclipse pattern as it’s happening,” she said.