The Coming Solar Eclipse

Last Tuesday, April 2nd, the New York Times had its weekly Science section.

Its focus was all about the eclipse that happens on Monday, April 8th. When it will exactly happen? How best to watch it? How to enjoy even if you are blind—can you still enjoy it? And more. One how-to article they’ve had up online for longer is this.

The Eclipse

The main issue with the eclipse is, when is it safe to watch it? It is not safe unless one watches it with some important restrictions. Direct viewing of the sun without using any sort of protection can cause permanent eye damage. The intense light from the sun during an eclipse can cause damage to the retina of the eye, leading to permanent vision loss. It’s important to use specially designed solar viewing glasses or other indirect viewing methods to safely observe a solar eclipse.

I started reading the Science articles to see if there was a simple answer to the question:

Is it safe to watch it on TV?

This seemed like a simple direct question. Perhaps I am too TV based—I spend a major fraction of my day watching the news and other programs every day on TV. So why not watch the solar eclipse this way?

I discovered quickly that the Science articles had lots of comments on how to safely watch the eclipse. But none said anything about: is it TV safe? Doing a Google search showed that there were two answers:

1. In fact, the absolute safest way to watch it is on TV.

2. Yes, it is not safe to look at a solar eclipse, even on TV, without proper eye protection.

However, there is often confusion about how to look at it safely during an eclipse, when the moon partially or completely covers the sun and it gets dark outside. Viewing the solar eclipse safely is paramount. In fact, the absolute safest way to watch it is on TV. Having said this, the TV camera shooting the sun CAN get permanent damage if not protected in the same way as our eyes. But nothing that will appear on a TV screen is remotely close to be able to damage your eyes.

Up in Buffalo

Ken and visiting friends and family will be in the path of totality. The paths of clouds, however, are too uncertain to tell what they will see. Over to Ken:

I bought welder’s glass at the time of the 1994 annular eclipse in Buffalo—which was clouded out. The key is that if you hold it up to a bright bare light bulb, you should still NOT see the bulb at all. Same with eclipse glasses. The glass worked well for the 2017 eclipse which was partial in Buffalo.

Debbie and I attended a lecture last Thursday at Nichols School where she teaches. The speaker, Jeffrey Linsky, made one point to add to the above advice: once the eclipse goes total, take the glasses off. It is safe to look directly at the sun’s corona behind the moon. Linsky also emphasized that the human eyes have better resolution than any camera for viewing and appreciating features such as prominences, wisps of the corona, and the surrounding dark sky.

Exactly at the instant totality ends, whip the glasses back on before attempting to view Baily’s beads or the diamond ring effect.

Watching the 2017 eclipse on TV was indeed deadly—for a P != NP claim.

Open Problems

So I believe that TV is okay, but not all seem to agree. So be careful with this eclipse, please.