A solar eclipse is occurring on Monday.
Many people are hoping to look up into the sky and witness this natural phenomenon.
But optometrists, like Dr. Irene Mestito-Dao from the Henderson Vision Centre in Winnipeg, provides some caution for those wanting to see the moon cover the sun.
“The biggest thing people need to understand, especially from Manitoba, is that it is safe to look at the eclipse when it is a total eclipse, but in Manitoba we are only getting 70% so there is at no point in time safe to watch the partial eclipse without any protection,” noted Mestito-Dao. “It is also very important to protect your eyes even on a normal day with sunglasses, but with this at the actual eclipse, sunglasses won’t be safe. If you are trying to take a picture of it, you can’t take a picture; you can’t look directly at it with a normal camera or telescope. You have to have something that actually has a special filter on it. You also can’t use the eclipse shade with a camera because the eclipse shades are made with the intention that you are looking at it with just your eyes and not adding the extra magnification, the extra power that would come with looking through a camera, telescope or binoculars.”
Damage from looking at the sun can lead to blindness, either temporary or lifelong, blurry vision and sore eyes.
