Do you really need to wear eclipse glasses?
Yes. You’d risk blindness by staring at the sun without protection
August 17, 2017
A Saudi man wearing protective glasses watches the partial solar eclipse in Riyadh, 29 March 2006. The fourth total eclipse of the 21st century took place. The umbra was tracking eastward at dizzying speed across Africa and parts of the Middle East before expiring in Asia, covering a distance of 14,500 kilometers where the eclipse would end.
Sure, it's only a once-in-a-generation event, but does Monday's total eclipse of the sun also have to be a total eclipse of fashion?
Picture it: There you are, dressed up for the celestial celebration, a moment of cosmic transcendence that shivers into your central nervous system and teaches you that the very same dust that makes the stars and the planets also makes you, standing wherever you are at that moment, like every single other person on Earth both in and of the universe … and what tops the wardrobe? A pair of goofy eclipse glasses. Like, do you even need to wear those stupid things?
Uh, yes.
Definitely.
Seriously, wear eclipse glasses.
Here's why: Staring into the sun, even the mostly obscured sun, can literally burn your eyeballs. Doctors say this can happen in just a few seconds. And it's possible that the damage can be permanent, causing lasting blind spots.
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