There is supposed to be an partial eclipse today. And once again, the local news stations warn us “don’t look at the eclipse with the naked eye, you’ll harm your eyes.”
My question is this: Is this the same warning we are given for staring at the non-eclipsed sun, or is there something much more dangerous in viewing an eclipse? If so, how is this possible? it seems to me that there is less, not more light available for burning out your retina.
The danger is in looking at the sun, whether (partially) eclipsed or not. But during an eclipse, people are much more likely to give the sun more than a passing glance, increasing the danger. Your local news dweebs may have misunderstood this and assumed that it’s somehow more dangerous to look at a partially eclipsed sun than the everyday variety.
It is however safe to look at the sun during the fleeting moments of totality in a total eclipse. The light from the sun is then about the same as the light from a full moon.
Also, the total brightness of the sun would decrease during an eclipse because there is less of it visible. So it’ll be less painful to look at the sun. The trouble is, the part that’s still visible doesn’t get any dimmer, and it’s still perfectly capable of frying your retina. It’s not the overall brightness that damages your eye, it’s the surface brightness. Fewer retina cells will see the light, but the light seen by those cells doesn’t change.
Also don’t use exposed film negatives or music CDs for viewing the eclipse. Film can pass a lot of infrared light, and CDs have pinholes. It’s best to buy those aluminized mylar filters (not just any aluminized mylar, but one sold specifically for solar viewing) or welding mask filters. If you didn’t have time go get stuff like that, poke a small hole in a piece of paper and look at the shadow of that hole. The hole acts as a pinhole camera and you’ll see a nice image projected onto the ground.
Those of us on the West Coast couldn’t project the eclipse on to the ground because the eclipse occurred very early in the morning and the sun was very low on the horizon.
So instead of using one piece of paper, I had to splurge and use two. There wasn’t much to see out here (~15% eclipsed), but I feel obligated to check it out because you never know when you will get to see another one (referring to weather conditions).
I just poked a small hole in an index card and taped the card to a south facing window. Then I poked four holes in the same card and got 4 little eclipses! I took a picture.
Hey Boscibo, that’s neat! Take a look at what NASA posted for another POV Another way to view the Eclipse.
I can’t take credit for finding this site; it’s one of the many things I learned about while reading the SDMB.
It’s been cloudy all day where I am. By the time it finally cleared up, the eclipse was almost over.
People around my hometown (Meadville) say that this area is the rainiest, cloudiest place in North America next to Seattle. Seattle residents say that they live in the rainiest, cloudiest place in North America next to Meadville (a friend of my brother’s actually had that told to him while he was in Seattle).
Here’s a picture of the eclipse as viewed through a colander that I took today.
We saw about 55% here in Washington, DC.
We were overcast completely here in Una’s Frozen World. No eclipse for me. 
