Total solar eclipses are rare occasions, and even when they come around, not everybody gets to see them. April 8th’s solar eclipse wasn’t fully visible in California, only partially, yet it still provided an opportunity for students to go outside and soak in the moment. The students of MCMS took a break from their regular period 3/4 classes at around 11 a.m. to look at the sun. Not directly at it of course, but with special solar eclipse-viewing eye protection.
Why is eye protection necessary in the first place? Let’s start with just looking directly into the solar eclipse. This daring feat will reward you with burnt cells in the retina at the back of the eye. You won’t be able to tell that the cells are dying, because your retinas have no pain receptors. On top of that, once these cells are dead, they don’t come back.
Getting your eyes burned out by a solar eclipse is called solar retinopathy, and can result in color blurring and sometimes total vision loss. In a quote from NBC, Joel Dixon – he got solar retinopathy at age 13 – states, “‘We poked a hole in a little box, like a shoe box type of thing. You can see the moon when the moon covers up the sun. You could still see it but it wasn’t good enough so briefly I looked up,’ Dixon told us in 2017. Dixon said his vision was yellow for two weeks after looking at the sun and he suffered permanent damage, especially to his right eye.” This happened to Dixon after briefly looking up. Imagine what would happen with a full glare at the sun.
Using eye protection is critical because it blacks out everything and dims the glare of the eclipse. As long as these glasses are worn, all is good! You can revel around in the fun of looking at things in the glasses and seeing nothing until you look up.
The MCMS students had a great time looking at the solar eclipse while following safety measures. Student Adyant Borhade commented about the experience, stating: “I got to go outside and experience the eclipse with my friends… it was a lot of fun. Our math teacher also showed us a video of the total solar eclipse, right from Texas.”
Needless to say, solar eclipses are fun… as long as you don’t get your eyes burned out!
