Who peeked?

[youalright]

Admit it who peeked, can't of just been me 🤣🤣🤣

Not during an eclipse, no.

This is peak comedy. Glad I came back to this thread. 😂

I agree here, I was out in the garden then, lovely day weather wise again not to bothered about seeing the eclipse but I remember it also went pretty cold and the birds went totally silent.

The sun is the sun, eclipse or not the danger comes from when its covered you can look at it for longer without realising but nobody on this thread did that people looked at it for a second and looked away just like when you catch the sun with your eyes normally. If people where staring directly at it for minutes you would have a point

‘tis often a very strong indicator……..

Did your ophthalmology degree come from Temu?

Off the back of this thread I had a complete panic and booked dd in for an optician’s appointment this morning. Cos we watched the whole thing for an hour intermittently staring at sun. Her eyes are fine. They said if there was a problem we would have known in first few hours afterwards which is not what Google said. My appointment is tomorrow!

In 1966 when I was 11 we were all given some coloured cellophane and went into the school yard to watch. I don't think we'll ever know if it caused any damage but certainly not everyone who watched it then is blind now

That's what you aren't understanding. It doesn't need minutes it's seconds. You can damage your eyes permanently in seconds.

You're right you can, but it's unlikely, at least at a level which causes symptoms.

Of the approximately 40 million people who watched the 1999 eclipse, 28 had reported injuries from staring at the eclipse for less than a minute.

There was no recorded case of someone having damaged after an eclipse were they only glimpsed for a second or less.

I squinted at it briefly when I was on the bus but there was a bit of cloud cover. I saw a glimpse of the crescent shape.

You watched without the glasses etc?
What did he say would have been the problem in the first few hours afterwards-the symptoms?

But if you can damage your eyes permanent in seconds, doesn’t that mean we’re all very often at risk? I think look at it by accident fairly frequently, for example when driving and it’s right in your eyes or when I try and wash my roof lantern. Or kids playing at the beach looking for their patents.

Well we had normal cheap sunglasses on. So our vision would have started to go blurry etc in the first few hours according to the 3 opticians I spoke to this morning. Yes, looked at it - on and off from 6.30pm to 7.30pm

I can't look at the sun even sunglasses on.

I didn't know people could😊

Thank you for this. Very reassuring.
does it count cumulatively or only in a row? Eg look at it for 10 seconds, away for a couple of minutes on and on for an hour.

I'm not sure. Sorry. But if you find out please let me know.

The normal brightness of the sun means that you naturally can't look directly at the sun long for a sustained period. In an eclipse, that instinct to look away is absent, even though the magnitude of the rays is still present, and people therefore can look directly for a longer period (though still seconds) and unknowingly cause damage. The damage isn't immediately obvious. It can develop over time.

I peeked a couple of times. I did see blobs in my eyes for quite a while after.

I am prescribed glasses but never wear them, maybe the sun beams will act like laser beams and fix my eyes.

We watched it from Sidmouth seafront using my digital telescope - got some great photos, could even see some sun spots. I peeked a couple of times, mainly when repositioning the telescope.

Even with glasses I accidentally peeked! Twice.. whilst adjusting them.(I'm a spectacle wearer anyway and was trying to get a tighter fit and they slipped... I had spots for a few minutes..
I watched it from a beach in North Cornwall and it was amazing! It was a lovely atmosphere. Of course it wasn't as dark as 1999 but it was only a partial eclipse. It went noticeably cooler and darker and the seagulls started heading home..

*Can't HAVE! Not 'of', OP!

Well checking back in to say I can still see normally this morning!

Very well said!

As someone who peaked, the instinct to look away was still there, just as strong. No one could look for long even if they wanted to. It might be more of an issue with a higher % covered. Without the glasses (or stacked sunglasses or something that reduces the light) if just looked like the normal sub anyway, just slightly odd shaped.