#Staring at the sun spiritual free

Many patients with solar retinopathy recover from their symptoms, but some have lasting vision problems. As a result, patients with solar retinopathy may have blurry vision or a central blind point in their eyes, according to the AAO. The damage occurs in the fovea, a spot in the retina that is responsible for sharp, central vision.

#Staring at the sun spiritual free

It's thought that this damage happens when photons (light particles) create free radicals, which are highly reactive molecules that can 'poison' cells and kill them, Van Gelder said. 'It looks like someone took a hole punch and just punched out the photoreceptive cells in the retina,' Van Gelder told Live Science. Patients with this condition, known as solar retinopathy, show a very characteristic pattern of eye damage during an exam. 'If you take a lens that has that much power and point it directly at the sun, the energy becomes very high,' and is enough to literally burn holes in the retina, or the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye, Van Gelder said. And the lens in your eye is about four times as powerful as the type of magnifying glass a child might play with, Van Gelder said. 'Focusing the sun's rays on a single point creates a lot of energy,' Van Gelder said. To understand why, think of a child using a magnifying glass outside to burn holes in paper. Regardless of where you observe the eclipse, it's important not to look directly at the sun with the naked eye. People outside the path of the total solar eclipse will see a partial solar eclipse. It will be the first time since 1918 that a total solar eclipse will be visible across the continental United States (from the West Coast to the East Coast), according to the American Astronomical Society (AAS).

21, 2017, the moon will pass between the Earth and the sun, causing a total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the United States, along a narrow path from Oregon to South Carolina. Russell Van Gelder, a clinical spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and director of the University of Washington Medicine Eye Institute in Seattle. 'Even very short direct observation of the sun has the potential to cause damage,' said Dr. That's because, even though the sun is some 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away, it can still cause serious, and sometimes irreversible, eye damage. During next month's Great American Total Solar Eclipse, you may be tempted to take in the historic event by gazing directly at the sun, but you absolutely should not do this without the proper eye protection, experts say.