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A portion of Michigan will be in the path of totality during Total solar eclipse on April 8a celestial spectacle that will not occur again in the continental US until 2044.
Whether you plan to watch the sky in that small corner of Monroe County that will have a view of the total solar eclipse starting at 3:13 p.m. or you plan to see a partial eclipse in other parts of the state, it could cause permanent damage to your vision without proper glasses, said Dr. Nitin Kumar, senior ophthalmologist at Henry Ford Health.
“What’s happening is such an amazing event. It’s kind of humbling in terms of putting things in perspective, our place in the world and the universe, and it’s natural to want to look at it,” Kumar said.
“People say, ‘I’m going to go out and take a quick look.’ … People do that, look at it without eclipse glasses and then instantly regret it… Just don’t do it. Don’t look at the sun (without eclipse glasses) for eclipse). It’s really bad for your eyes. “.
How bad is it really to look at the sun without eclipse glasses?
“When you look at the sun directly without any filters, you’re basically doing to your retina what you would do to an insect on a sidewalk when you hold a magnifying glass over it,” Kumar said.
Bright light from the sun’s rays can burn the insect when they pass through the lens of the magnifying glass, just as they can burn the retina at the back of the eye when they pass through the lens at the front of the eye. . Is called solar retinopathy.
“Basically, you’re focusing light of extreme intensity directly onto your retina. This causes thermal damage to the retinal cells that actually see,” Kumar said. “These are the cells that take in light, convert it into electricity, and send it to the brain. They’re called photoreceptors. So looking directly at the sun will literally burn out the photoreceptors and damage those cells or cause them to stop working.”
He compared the damage that can occur to what happens to a television picture when a group of pixels no longer works.
“Those cells stop working…so you’re basically destroying pixels. If you look at the sun, it will burn those pixels. Sometimes they regenerate, but mostly they don’t,” Kumar said.
Dr. Julie Rosenthal, an ophthalmologist, assistant clinical professor at the University of Michigan and retina specialist at the Kellogg Eye Center, said a healthy retina is essential for good vision.
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“The retinal tissue at the back of the eye is where you have the clearest central vision that is used to read and recognize faces and see things up close,” Rosenthal said. “And that’s where the damage usually occurs when you look at the sun.
“Sunlight is a very strong energy. Welders can also sometimes suffer damage from that strong light. Looking directly into the beam of a laser pointer can also cause it.”
What are the symptoms of solar retinopathy?
“You won’t know you’re damaging your eyes until the damage has occurred,” Kumar said. “Think about if you accidentally look at the sun or if there is a big bright flash and you see that flash as a dot in your vision even after it has disappeared. Everyone has had that before briefly. Now imagine it’s permanent.
“Basically, that’s what it looks like. There’s a spot missing where it looks very bright in your center of vision or just outside your center of vision. You may not be able to see well enough to read, watch TV, do things.” . “Like this. Your peripheral vision will be fine, it’s just your central vision, the vision that occurs in what is called the macula, that is usually affected.”
Rosenthal said some people also experience other symptoms.
“Sometimes people are left with wavy lines in their vision,” Rosenthal said. “It will affect your near vision a little more if you have the damage right in the center, which is where most people have a problem because they are looking directly at the sun.”
If you have a toddler or baby who can’t or won’t wear eclipse glasses, Rosenthal suggests they stay inside during the eclipse.
Is there treatment for solar retinopathy?
“There is no treatment for this,” Kumar said. “There is no way we can replace photoreceptors once they are lost.
“You are only born with a certain number of retinal cells, and that’s it for your entire life. We don’t have any way to transplant retinal or retinal cells. If we did, then we could cure macular degeneration and others diseases that cause blindness, but we do not have the capacity to do so.
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“Any cell that is lost is a cell that is gone. Now, there is a lot of redundancy in the retina. Patients with diseases like macular degeneration can lose a large portion of their retinal photoreceptors and still see well, but they don’t see like they used to. “It’s the same with this.”
Rosenthal said that in some cases, minor damage can heal over time.
“Vision may improve a little during the first six months or so, but sometimes it doesn’t heal completely,” he said. “Sometimes people are left with a blind spot in their vision or wavy lines in their vision where they can’t see.”
How long does it take to cause serious damage?
Injuries can occur after just a few seconds of looking at the sun without eye protection, Kumar said.
“You can’t look at the sun directly without a filter,” even during a partial eclipse, when its light is mostly covered by the moon but there is still a rim of sunlight around it, he said.
Damage often occurs during total solar eclipses, when people take off their goggles to view totality when the sun is completely covered by the moon, Rosenthal said, but don’t put the goggles on quickly enough as the eclipse disappears from totality.
“That’s when damage can occur, because people want to see the eclipse in its entirety and don’t recognize that the sun is about to appear again,” Rosenthal said.
“It doesn’t have to be a long exposure to cause damage. It can definitely happen pretty quickly.”
What type of eclipse glasses are safe?
Sunglasses, even those with very dark lenses, welding glasses, and homemade filters are not enough to protect your eyes during a solar eclipse. according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
The only safe way to view the eclipse is to use a special filter, goggles or glasses that meet the global safety standard and are ISO 12312-2 certified. Be sure to check that the glasses you have are not scratched or damaged.
He American Astronomical Society has posted recommendations on where to find safe eclipse glasses and special solar filters, which are 1,000 times darker than regular sunglasses: eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/eyewear-viewers.
“The things you have around the house, different types of filters, frosted glass, etc., are not appropriate for looking at the sun,” Kumar said.
“If you want to see it with a telescope, there are solar filters that you can use on a telescope to see it. And then there are different types of projection systems. The most common one is called a pinhole projector and basically “It has a small hole where the light from the sun and the light is projected onto a piece of shiny paper or other material in the background.
Can I take off my glasses when the eclipse is total?
Yes, but not for long. If you’re in the path of totality and the moon completely covers the sun, then it would be safe to take off your eclipse glasses to look at it, Kumar said.
“But the problem is that totality doesn’t last that long. And as soon as you come out of totality, you see the sunlight coming back toward you,” he said. “It’s really dangerous to do it. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
What should people do if they think they damaged their eyes during the eclipse?
Rosenthal said anyone who suspects damage when viewing the eclipse should see an ophthalmologist for a fully dilated eye exam.
“Unfortunately, there’s not much the doctor can do to treat it, but we can monitor it and see if that’s really what’s causing the problem,” he said. “Certainly other things can cause those symptoms and we want to rule those out as well.”
“The most important thing is education and knowing not to look directly at the sun, no matter how tempting it may be.”
Contact Kristen Shamus: kshamus@freepress.com. Subscribe to Prensa Libre.