Solar eclipse idiots

[Irregularelephant]

The amount of people on my social media feed i have seen using a colander to stare directly at the sun through it rather than casting a shadow with it to view. Or people who have permanently damaged their phones from the glare. Or the knock off glasses from dodgy websites that arent certified.
IABU: they will all be fine
IANBU: They have damaged there eyes and are silly

Well good old taxpayers will have to pick up the bill for that stupidity, won’t they, if lots of people have damaged their eyes. But of course we have a magic money tree, don’t we 🙄

Maybe, but for context my very battered copy of the Observer's Book of Astronomy (1962 edition) opens it's chapter on The Sun with a grave warning about the dangers of looking/observing the Sun and the risk of eye damage.

Also as a FWIW I used to be subject to regular eyesight etc checks for work purposes and when I discussed this with the Doc on one occasion he reckoned he'd certainly never seen retinal damage that he thought might be due to the Sun, despite him doing hundreds of examinations a year.

There’s being perfect and then there’s being able to use Google and to understand the simple information presented there.

On my social media someone was bragging that it's only the vaccinated who have bought into some sort of hoax

I do hope they used the same colander they used to bang for NHS on their doorstep during covid to look at solar eclipse. While refusing to be vaccinated

I voted YABU. I don't believe people are damaging their phones in any great number. I've taken a million photos with the sun directly beaming into the lens as a purposeful choice to capture silhouette shots. The eclipse is no different to that. Anyone damaging their phone is doing more than taking a shot of the sun.

And a quick peek at it is no more harmful than all the accidental quick peeks any of us take when we get the sun in our eyes.

I find it hard to believe anyone was standing there staring at it, because your eyes don't let you do that. They blink and give up on you. But anyone that was, yes, idiots. Don't believe for one minute they represent a significant volume of people though.

Would a lettuce spinner do?

Bit late I know.

They'll probably be asked if they looked at the sun and deny it.

We tried too and got … a pattern of light and shadow.
How is anyine supposed to see the eclipse tyat way is 😵‍💫😵‍💫

You forget the other kind of idiot. Lots in my local facebook groups saying that we didn't get any eclipse here (we did and the sky was very clear) because they thought they'd be able to see it without glasses or using a projector of some kind. And then complaining they didn't even see the moon like they expected it to be shining away alongside the sun or something 😂

Luckily I got the last authentic pair in Alfie Stoat’s Science Shop.

🤣🤣🤣

I worry for the future

In that case, people living in very bright sunny areas woukd have higher levels if eyes issues later on life?

I viewed it using a telescope rigged to cast the event onto a piece of card. We saw 4 sunspots and how the moon obliterated them as it passed across the sun. We also experienced the eerie greenish darkness and silence as we reached 93% of totality. The sense I had was similar to the atmosphere just before a thunderstorm.
I saw the colander and pinhole methods on TV - rather late at 5ish! Both would have worked done properly. Anyone who looked directly at the sun as it was eclipsed will have damaged their eyes if they did it without proper glasses (I gave DGGS a pair sourced from our local astronomy society which were safe). You can't tell some people, sadly.

I think the issue is normally we glance up at the sun or take a brief photo. Im talking about staring at it for a prolonged period, also same for damaging the camera whilst taking a long video of the eclipse.
The post about not putting suncream on children is wild.
But yes, everyone pop the colander onto the head and wait for the shoe to drop. Or the next eclipse where we will be 6 foot under already and in no danger of retina damage at least.

When you look at the sun briefly under normal circumstances the pupil contracts to protect the retina, If a person (idiot) uses sunglasses/welding glass/inadequate eye protection to look at the sun during an eclipse, the glass or lens tricks the pupil into expanding, so no retina protection, leading to irreversible, painless, peripheral retinal damage.

The unemployed Covid marshals are bored, and wishing it’s 2020 again, so they can talk of idiots “flocking” to burn their eyes out, like the papers talked in 1999 of people “flocking” to see the eclipse.

Showed kids doing it- it looked easy

As far as you know…

@Allseeingallknowing well if I don't reply after this you will know I'm having vision problem 🙂

More bothered about the ones who'll be using up NHS resources and stopping those of us who have non-self-inflicted injuries accessing care.

I suppose I should feel sorry for them. You'd surely have to have something wrong with you to behave like that. Let's just hope none of them have kids.

There is correlation to a variety problems with eyesight/damage to eyes in coutnries with a lot of sun because of UV exposure.
That being said, I assume many people in those countries are not imbeciles looking straight at the sun, and adapting to the conditions they live (and not being on sm reading about 'sunglasses conspiracy' hehe) contributes to them not being permanently blind.

The people who believe it's fine to stare at the sun are probably anti vaxers and climate change deniers

We don't though. The sun hits your eyes, you instinctively squint and look away or raise a hand to block it. You don't force your eyes open and stare directly at it for as long as you can, which is what people watching the eclipse were doing.

One of my neighbours kids still has a white spot in the middle of his vision this morning so she's taking him to the optician later. I think he's probably burnt his retina. They were all competing who could look longest.

My neighbour, who is a conspiracy theorist and was a bit pissed, pronounced it all "scaremongering bollocks" and went to the beach to watch it with his bare eyes. I haven't seen him yet today but I hope he's ok!