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In the run-up to last August'due south solar eclipse, doctors and health officials strenuously warned that no one should attempt to look at the sun without proper eye protection. The event got some boosted visibility when some of the spectacles sold on Amazon were constitute to be fake. The problem isn't that the sun is brighter during an eclipse, but that humans rarely take much reason to stare at our lovely brawl of burning gas, and consequently don't effort to do so on a regular ground. But there are always people who either dubiousness how dangerous something is or simply never hear near it, and one such example has appeared.

AsTheWashington Post details, Nia Payne wanted to see the August 21st solar eclipse, but did not have appropriate eye protection. She glanced upwards at the sun for ~6 seconds when it was approximately 70 pct covered, and so borrowed a pair of eclipse glasses and stared at it for another 15-20 seconds. Unfortunately, the glasses she borrowed weren't of the appropriate type. Payne reported seeing an eclipse-shaped afterimage for several days before she went to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.

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Doctors have known for years that staring at a solar eclipse can damage your retinas and leave a permanent bullheaded spot (hence the warnings), only Payne's instance took a dissimilar turn than nearly. Afterwards request her to draw her own blind spot (above), the doctors used an imaging tool that uses adaptive optics to directly meet the harm to her retina. According to Avnish Deobhakta, assistant professor of ophthalmology at Mount Sinai and co-writer of the study, it's the beginning time nosotros've directly imaged the damage to the retina in this fashion.

"What we found is that the sun's rays had damaged the photoreceptor layer in a very specific pattern, like a crescent," Deobhakta said. "It really aligned with what she drew for us when we beginning saw her."

Deobhakta hopes i day doctors might exist able to treat or cure this kind of retinal damage, but for now, that's impossible. According to Payne, the bullheaded spot does not become away. It'due south forced her to learn to primarily focus with her other eye, and changed how she has to perform certain tasks.

We would propose readers to accept the entire incident as a cautionary tale, peculiarly since there's another solar eclipse coming on July two, 2022. Payne didn't stare at the dominicus for minutes at a time. She thought she was using advisable eyewear. Keep in listen that real eclipse glasses cake 99.nine percent of visible lite. You shouldn't be able to see anything only the sunday through them, and the sun itself should wait like a dim, orangish bulb. If you glance at the sun with eclipse glasses and come across annihilation else, it's possible your glasses are either defective or counterfeit.