Nobody lives forever. Seeing the eclipse with your own naked eyes, even for one second, is something you’ll never be able to do again before you’re dead and there’s no chances left. Think of it as a spiritual experience. People run across hot coals for spirituality and you aren’t here scolding them. Nobody posting screenshots of google trends for “why do my feet hurt?”*
Warn people not to look directly at an eclipse, yes. But when they do it anyway, at least give them credit for having a reason why.
[*] I will admit, if you look directly at an eclipse and then don’t know why your eyes hurt, you’re pretty dumb.
This reminds me of that poster in my highschool chem lab:
Same with shooting without eye/ear pro. I dunno about other folks but I use my eyes and ears a lot, and I’d hate to miss out on music and color the rest of my life because I thought I would have a transcendent experience blowing them out for a minute. 😬
If I had someone run through hot coals I would scold them, sure. Much like for being angry about others not believing in zombie carpenters or letting quacks give their kids overpriced sugar pills. But that’s jot the context right now, is it?
Eclipses happen every year like clockwork (it basically is clockwork, but on a huge scale). Eclipse seasons are spring and fall, around the equinoxes. You could very easily fly to see a total eclipse every couple years if you want to, because we know when they are going to happen and where will have totality - it’s very routine stuff. There’s literally nothing special at all about the one that just happened, except that a lot of people haven’t seen one before because it hasn’t happened -at that location- in a time.
So no, absolutely not something you’ll never get a chance to see again, tho you won’t be able if you go blind like a fucking moron.
Total eclipses aren’t rare, but them being in an accessible location and not just over some random place in the ocean is. I looked this up the other day, and any one particular location on Earth will see a total eclipse once every 350 years or so.
Except they aren’t just visible from a single location, so almost every time they are over an accessible place on land. Not for the whole thing, sure, but visible all the same.
This might be helpful for reference. It’s maps of where the next 50 years worth of total eclipses fall. The first one that isn’t really visible by people is 2039 in Antarctica. There’s a few like that. Other than that, there’s at least an island you could go to for it, and see one every few years. Eclipses being totally unavailable to view is actually far more rare than seeing one :)
You know that you can look directly at an eclipse and not immediately go blind, right? That’s also true of the naked sun in the sky, btw. I’d hate to think you were here to scold people without even understanding what the danger actually is.
You’re immediately taking the argument to the extreme. You won’t immediately go blind, but it will damage your retina in ways you sometimes don’t notice because the brain compensates for it. It happened to my uncle when he was a welder, he had a second blind spot where he couldn’t see sharply, but it didn’t really affect his quality of life.
Glancing at the eclipse while it’s in totality is not going to give you permanent damage. Now if you stare at it until totality is over and the sun is on full blast again…
Yes, get yourself eclipse glasses, a pinhole projector, a floppy disk, digital camera or whatever allows you to observe the eclipse safely – no phenomenon is worth risking your eyesight over. However, the consensus is that you can watch the sun flares without protection during totality. The totality lasted 0 to 4 minutes depending on your location.
Nobody lives forever. Seeing the eclipse with your own naked eyes, even for one second, is something you’ll never be able to do again before you’re dead and there’s no chances left. Think of it as a spiritual experience. People run across hot coals for spirituality and you aren’t here scolding them. Nobody posting screenshots of google trends for “why do my feet hurt?”*
Warn people not to look directly at an eclipse, yes. But when they do it anyway, at least give them credit for having a reason why.
[*] I will admit, if you look directly at an eclipse and then don’t know why your eyes hurt, you’re pretty dumb.
This reminds me of that poster in my highschool chem lab:
Same with shooting without eye/ear pro. I dunno about other folks but I use my eyes and ears a lot, and I’d hate to miss out on music and color the rest of my life because I thought I would have a transcendent experience blowing them out for a minute. 😬
The partial eclipse is nothing special. Any given location gets one every few years or so.
Totality is the really neat and special thing, and it isn’t damaging to your eyes. (assuming you don’t pre-empt or overshoot the timing)
If I had someone run through hot coals I would scold them, sure. Much like for being angry about others not believing in zombie carpenters or letting quacks give their kids overpriced sugar pills. But that’s jot the context right now, is it?
Eclipses happen every year like clockwork (it basically is clockwork, but on a huge scale). Eclipse seasons are spring and fall, around the equinoxes. You could very easily fly to see a total eclipse every couple years if you want to, because we know when they are going to happen and where will have totality - it’s very routine stuff. There’s literally nothing special at all about the one that just happened, except that a lot of people haven’t seen one before because it hasn’t happened -at that location- in a time.
So no, absolutely not something you’ll never get a chance to see again, tho you won’t be able if you go blind like a fucking moron.
Total eclipses aren’t rare, but them being in an accessible location and not just over some random place in the ocean is. I looked this up the other day, and any one particular location on Earth will see a total eclipse once every 350 years or so.
Except they aren’t just visible from a single location, so almost every time they are over an accessible place on land. Not for the whole thing, sure, but visible all the same.
This might be helpful for reference. It’s maps of where the next 50 years worth of total eclipses fall. The first one that isn’t really visible by people is 2039 in Antarctica. There’s a few like that. Other than that, there’s at least an island you could go to for it, and see one every few years. Eclipses being totally unavailable to view is actually far more rare than seeing one :)
https://time.com/4897581/total-solar-eclipse-years-next/
Being able to see properly is also something they’ll never be able to do again, so, I hope that one second was “spiritual” enough for them lol
You know that you can look directly at an eclipse and not immediately go blind, right? That’s also true of the naked sun in the sky, btw. I’d hate to think you were here to scold people without even understanding what the danger actually is.
You’re immediately taking the argument to the extreme. You won’t immediately go blind, but it will damage your retina in ways you sometimes don’t notice because the brain compensates for it. It happened to my uncle when he was a welder, he had a second blind spot where he couldn’t see sharply, but it didn’t really affect his quality of life.
There’s a pretty big difference between temporary pain and permanent damage though.
Unless you royally fuck up walking on coals you get some pain, fuck up a little and you just get some blisters.
Glancing at the eclipse while it’s in totality is not going to give you permanent damage. Now if you stare at it until totality is over and the sun is on full blast again…
Or if you’re not in the path of totality…. The risk just isn’t worth it.
Let’s just not look up at the bright thing in the sky that can cause permanent damage at any given time.
…and ignore one of the coolest things there is to see on the sky
Or plan in advance and have some protection?
Yes, get yourself eclipse glasses, a pinhole projector, a floppy disk, digital camera or whatever allows you to observe the eclipse safely – no phenomenon is worth risking your eyesight over. However, the consensus is that you can watch the sun flares without protection during totality. The totality lasted 0 to 4 minutes depending on your location.
playing russian roulette is not going to give you permanent damage every 5/6 times