Can you go blind by watching solar eclipse without special glasses? People share real-life experiences

Every time before a solar eclipse, people are advised to not look directly at the solar event as it can also make them blind. It sounds like an old wives' tale, but it is actually true. An ophthalmologist checked 26-year-old Nia Payne's eyes in 2017 and to everyone's surprise, the distinctive contours of the solar eclipse she saw a few days ago were etched onto her retina. She had seen the eclipse through faulty glasses. This case was noted in a medical journal called JAMA Opthalmology by doctors from Mount Sinai's and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, reports USA Today.

Also, they document this case because these are rare. Dr. Avnish Deobhakta, who treated the woman, said it was a very focused beam of high-energy light from the Sun. "It can actually destroy parts of the retina and certainly destroy it in the shape of an eclipse," he added. The woman told the doctors that she had watched the Moon passing in front of the Sun through a pair of protective glasses. The scans showed that the damage that she had on her left retina was exactly in the shape of a partial eclipse. "It looks like a crescent Moon," Payne was quoted as saying by ABC7.

B Ralph Chou, a professor emeritus of optometry at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, believes that the damage happens when people stare too long at a solar eclipse. However, he says that this sort of damage, called solar retinopathy, will not exactly make a person completely blind. "You end up possibly getting enough damage that you can no longer see things that are really, really fine in detail," Chou told Live Science.

According to experts, looking at the Moon when it covers the Sun completely is safe. The problem arises when someone looks at the Sun before and after the total eclipse or watches a partial eclipse outside the path of totality without proper eye protection. Moreover, a regular pair of shades is not enough because one needs solar eclipse visors or glasses that will actually reduce the amount of light reaching the eye by a factor of 250,000, Chou said. "It's important that you make sure you use these devices properly," the expert said. "You put them in front of your eyes, then you look at the Sun. You never remove the filters while looking at the Sun until the Moon completely covers up the Sun."

The eclipse in 2017, which passed through Oregon to South Carolina, is said to have caused 100 cases, per the American Astronomical Society. However, this rare phenomenon was witnessed by over 150 million people. This year, the solar eclipse is expected to be watched by even more people because it is passing through large cities in the US, Mexico and Canada. Experts have told people to plan before they head out to watch the eclipse. Deobhakhta said that people usually squint or look away due to the Sun's brightness, but when it comes to a partial eclipse, they can look at the Sun without the flare because of the Moon's shadow. The high-energy rays cast down during that time are similar to a laser pinpointing the eye. People get exposed to harmful rays for a longer period. 

The study stated that the woman's vision became blurry and color distorted after four hours of watching the eclipse. So, the experts say that the way to avoid eye damage is to not look at the partial eclipse or turn one's back to the eclipse and watch its shadow using a pinhole light projection. And how to do it? One way is to create a pinhole by crisscrossing your fingers and allowing the light to project through them onto the ground and the other way is to hold up an index card with a hole in it or anything with small holes and let the sunlight pass through it onto the ground or a wall.

Like Payne, these childhood friends also shared their experience watching the solar eclipse in the early 1960s. Lou Tomososki and Roger Duvall, now 77, burnt eyes squinting up at a partial solar eclipse. They were watching the eclipse without protection from the baseball diamond at their high school in Portland, Oregon. They looked at it for 20 seconds and that's when Tomososki developed a grayish spot in the center of his right eye and Duvall also had a dark spot in his left eye. Duvall visited the hospital the day after when he realized that he was having vision loss. Since then, they have been warning people about the eclipse. "I'm more aware of it than your average person walking down the street," Tomososki said. "Because I got kind of a personal involvement with Mr. Sun."