Experts Explain Why You Should Never Stare Directly At the Sun During Solar Eclipse

August is a month we all look forward to because of its cool season, but this year’s August didn’t come alone, it came with the total solar eclipse. Consequently, scientists sent out a well pronounced and stern warning to the general public that they should not even attempt to look at the sun directly without the use of sun shades. A young lady in her 20s is currently facing health issues as a result of her direct visual contact with the total eclipse.

According to the details as contained in the case study, Deobhakta and his team gave a vivid picture of the predicament being undergone by the lady who stared at the eclipse via a flawed pair of glasses. After four hours of persistent staring at the sun for approximately six seconds without the aid of glasses, followed by precisely 15 to 20 seconds with the aid of glasses, her eyes started going through serious color disorientation and blurred vision, and they became watery. Her left eye was the most affected. She was able to view a “basic black spot” with her left eye.

This took her to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE) in a bid to get treated. The doctors carried out eye test for her through the use of adaptive optics to see accurate images of the cells that consisted of the photoreceptor layer of the retina. This is part of the eye that turns light into electrical power that the brain can comprehend and transmits. Deobhakta said that the technology gave them the chance to examine her solar-related damage called solar retinopathy, with an intense granular accuracy. The doctors discovered that the eclipse had most likely buried a crescent shape deep into the retina of the woman.

On the issue of protective shades, Avnish Deobhakta admitted that the method of making the right choices in picking the suitable sun shades could be challenging. He went on to say that the chasm in the enlightenment effect has pushed for the case study to be done by the assistant professor of ophthalmology working at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which was published in one publication.

However, they were able to put the issue into another perspective and categorize the way by which photoreceptors were destroyed to the extent of really looking almost like a shade of the eclipse crescent on the photoreceptor spot, Deobhakta explained. He said that what ordinary people can imagine has been shown by real precise technology.

The lady was asked to draw what she saw through the affected eye, and she was able to express her opinions through the drawing. The woman corroborated the effort of the researchers’ in the investigations by drawing out the kind of looks she could perceive. Deobhakta went on to report that her symptoms did not go away even after six weeks since the eclipse appeared.

This particular woman being mapped out in the case study was among the 22 people who paid a visit to NYEE with the case of eclipse-related damage. Only three among them had skeletal eye issues, and only the woman whose ordeal was narrated in the case study had solar retinopathy which was very serious and needed urgent attention. In spite of that, Deobhakta noted that the opportunity to examine the situation in this well-detailed piece was an unplanned opportunity.

He continued by saying that even if they do witness its arrival, there are hardly any patient who would commit the blunder of staring at the eclipse straight up, then get the confidence to call them up for appointment as a visually sick patient. Deobhakta further reiterated the fact that working technology in various hospitals which can effectively diagnose and treat such cases are accessible. He was confident as a medical authority living in New York to say that the NYC environs have not experienced an eclipse since the time this technology has been invented.

The assemblage of determinants has clarified one fact, according to Deobhakta, and that is, there will be no choice than to develop effective eclipse shades and create much awareness coupled with a proper orientation that will be needed before seven years time when another total eclipse will appear.