Who peeked?

During totality
100% totality

It can't have just been you. But I fell asleep and missed the whole thing.

I did. I swear it was darker in '99 (I think that was the date)

That's awful, surely they must have already been feeling very uncomfortable after 20 minutes?

One of my team told me her dad stared at the sun watching an eclipse and did develop very poor vision. I heeded her words and made a really shit pinhole foil box viewer, watched an indiscriminate blob wriggle around without changing (I missed the memo on ‘pin’ hole. Gave up and used DHs 3 pairs of sunnies one on top of the other. It actually worked but I also did a few glances straight at it. It’s a bit crazy that something so far away can blind you.

Being the crafty type…cough…I will start making my own aids and try to train our pug. How hard can it be?

Everyone posting on this site has pretty much the entire history of human learning in their pocket and powerful search engines (no, not AI!) with which to find any information they need. About the basics of languages (including English) and how to safely watch a solar eclipse. They were likely on social media or news apps which publicised this event weeks ago. There isn’t really any excuse for anyone not knowing anything nowadays. It’s general laziness that people aren’t interested in anything more intellectual than Love Island.

e.g. the attached geniuses, who haven’t realised that solar eclipses happen in other places than the UK, or that there are other ways we can understand the impact of using eyes or phone cameras to look directly at the sun. One got as far as googling but didn’t bother to delve any deeper. It’s utterly depressing.

If it was still very bright your pupils will have automatically narrowed. It is more damaging during an eclipse because your pupils don't register it as too bright and they open to allow full light in, as they always do when it's darker. You will probably be ok.

Just to add, why are some people so unkind and blasé about things that actually matter ie eye health? I mean, did you truly need to make such a horrid remark? We only get one pair of eyes, and even if you think it's not something you're likely to have problems with, it's pretty foolish to deliberately risk being blinded when people tell you otherwise.

I took my eyesight for granted until the consequences nearly cost me. The consultant opthalmologist I saw made it pretty.clear I was risking optic nerve damage if I didn't have treatment. Being blasé about such a precious sense is not funny.

Well we all know what not to do when staring at the sun then...

Oh, I thought it was masturbation that made you blind.

I was driving home from a horrible day at work and looked by total accident. Was trying to cross onto my road and was looking for oncoming traffic then noticed how bright the sun was and remembered it was the eclipse (very very high stress job & personal life at the min so it was the last thing on my mind) i was sort of looking for a couple of seconds before realising, Im quite worried now as 1 of my eyes feels really blurry/weird and both of my eyes feel really dry.
It was near the start of it all when I looked, the sun was just extremely bright, Anyone know how worried I should be? Is the sun more damaging during an eclipse or is it just that people will stare at it for longer than you would on a normal day that makes it damaging? I am really stressing myself out (have health anxiety as it is)

I didn't peek, due to valuing my eyesight. Don't you value yours, OP?

Day of the triffids for those who peeked.

Retina damage is typically painless. You're probably alright if it was just 2 seconds.

Hubby peeked and he’s gone to work his night shift seeing spots and with a cracking headache. Could be a coincidence though.

We decided to drive up to Dartmoor to watch it (as did half of Devon) and everyone was sat with the glasses on staring for ages. Others had fancy cameras and telescopes. From the absolute chaos that happened on the roads as we left there's a good chance a few people did actually go blind.

No peeking from me 😇

I was so busy lecturing Ds, that I looked to make sure that he wasn't looking in the direction... twice. Keeping fingers crossed as it was less than a second.

Why would you say something so nasty?

Is it? I was taken aback at how nasty that and a couple of other comments on this thread have been.

I expect quite a few peekers are lurking and have bottled up anxiety.

I think for those who looked for a second, it probably won't add up to the damage done over many years of getting the sun directly in your eyes when driving etc.

I saw several people looking (not peeking) and almost did a community service shout out to stop! But didn't. Maybe I should have!

I wonder if MN do an audio version? 🤔 Otherwise that 2 second glance (2 or 3 times) (call me Eve)! Wouldn't have been worth it. How else would I entertain myself without being able to read the ranting!! 😂