Safety notice:

You must use appropriate eye protection to safely view a solar eclipse.

Failure to protect your eyes can lead to permanent blindness.

Multimedia Resources

CBC Podcast—The Dose

0m:27s — Start of episode

18m:18s—Summary of safety advice

Interactive Map with Eclipse Guidance

The Totality application is a designed as a tool to accompany your experience of the total solar eclipse. The app features an interactive map showing what you will see from your location as well as safety messaging about when it is safe to remove glasses.

Totality for Apple devices

Totality for Android devices

Return to top

Safety Checklist

Never look at the sun without proper protective solar eclipse glasses; These are different from sunglasses. These must be worn over regular prescription glasses.
Look down & away from the sun before putting on your protective solar eclipse glasses. Only after the glasses are securely in place is it safe look up toward the sun.
You should not be able to see anything other than the sun while wearing the glasses—do not move around or drive while wearing eclipse glasses.
Before taking off the glasses, look down and away from the sun.

Please note: It is not safe to look at the sun through a camera or telescope, even if you are wearing solar eclipse glasses. The optics inside your camera or telescope can concentrate the radiation from the sun and overwhelm your otherwise protective glasses.

While it is safe to remove the protective eyeware only during totality, the moment the sun peaks out from behind the moon it can again cause irreversible eye damage.

Prevention is key: When in doubt, keep the glasses on for the entire solar eclipse to avoid damaging the eye.

Return to top

Safety Equipment

You must use proper eye protection to safely observe a solar eclipse. Normal sunglasses, even very dark sunglasses, are not safe.

Important note:

Do not buy eclipse glasses from unknown sources! (eg entities stumbled upon though Amazon)—There is no way of ensuring that glasses from unknown sources will meet the necessary safety requirements.

There are counterfeit solar eclipse glasses in circulation.

The following are some steps you can take to assess whether your glasses are safe:

First, try on your glasses indoors. You should be able to see nothing through them except maybe very, very bright light sources (not something you would ever comfortably look at without glasses). If you can see any furniture or table lamps, your glasses are insufficient for looking at the sun, and are UNSAFE.
Next, try your glasses in a controlled manner outside on a sunny day—put on your glasses and look around, but not toward the sun. You should not be able to see anything.
Next, try looking at the reflection of the sun in a window, on a shiny surface, or reflected in water. You should only see a very very faint glimmer of the sun.
Only after all of the above tests have been passed, you should test with the sun: looking away from the sun, put your glasses on, and then quickly and briefly look up at the sun, then look away. You should see a dim, clearly defined circle through the glasses. It should not appear bright.
Once all of these tests has been passed successfully, there is a good chance* that your glasses are safe.

To be considered safe, glasses must meet the ISO-12312-2 safety standard. Beyond what typical sunglasses accomplish, this standard ensures:

99% UV blockage (ultraviolet radiation)
97% IR blockage (infrared radiation)
99.99% visible light blockage

UV and IR are wavelengths of radiation that you cannot see, but that can still harm your eyes. This is why it is important to ensure you use glasses that meet these safety standards, beyond simply very very dark sunglasses.

Note that all of the tests confirming that your glasses are not counterfeit involve seeing (i.e. visible light)*—it is possible that counterfeit glasses could be produced meeting the visible light requirements without meeting the UV and IR protection requirements. Most counterfeit glasses will fail the visible light test as well.

The best protection will be to acquire your glasses from a reputable source.

Return to top

Risks & Eye Health

Failing to properly protect yourself when looking at the sun can cause a number of injuries to your eyes, including irreversible blind-spots (also called "scotomas") in your vision.

The following are some of the injuries that you can sustain by looking at the sun without protection:

On the back of the eye: Solar Retinopathy
- The intensity of the sun's radiation can damage the back of your eye—much like focussing sunlight through a magnifying glass to start a fire, the lens in your eye focusses radiation from the sun on the light-sensitive back of your eye ("retina").
- The cause of the damage, though, is not the "heat" of the sun, but rather a chemical reaction involving the ultraviolet and near-infrared radiation from the sun.
- There is no treatment for solar retinopathy: If you think you have sustained eye damage, seek NON-URGENT eye care—there is nothing that can be done urgently to help.
On the front of the eye:
- ultravioled radiation can burn the sensitive tissues on the front of your eye, causing a "sunburn" on your eye. This painful conditions is called solar keratitis
- infrared radiation can contribute to cataract formation

Our department will be staffing a solar retinopathy clinic the week of the total eclipse to see any injuries sustained from the event.

Please note: this clinic is by referral only; Please go to an Emergency Department or Urgent Care Centre, or to your regular health or eye-health provider for a referral.

Return to top

Grand Rounds Presentation

Return to top

Accessibility

The Eclipse Soundscapes app is a multi-sensory tool designed to allow alternate ways to experience astronomical events like the total eclipse taking place in April—events which are typically considered "highly visual" in nature.

The application includes countdowns, real-time narration with illustrative descriptions, and a "rumble map" designed to allow the user to feel and hear the eclipse.

Soundscapes for Apple devices

Soundscapes for Android devices

Return to top

Donate today

Help support the clinical and academic missions of the Department of Ophthalmology at Queen's University.

Total Solar Eclipse

Safety notice:

You must use appropriate eye protection to safely view a solar eclipse.

Failure to protect your eyes can lead to permanent blindness.

Multimedia

Safety checklist

Safety equipment

Health Risks

Eclipse Accessibility

Department of Physics resources

Multimedia Resources

CBC Podcast—The Dose

Interactive Map with Eclipse Guidance

The Totality application is a designed as a tool to accompany your experience of the total solar eclipse. The app features an interactive map showing what you will see from your location as well as safety messaging about when it is safe to remove glasses.

Safety Checklist

Never look at the sun without proper protective solar eclipse glasses; These are different from sunglasses. These must be worn over regular prescription glasses.

Look down & away from the sun before putting on your protective solar eclipse glasses. Only after the glasses are securely in place is it safe look up toward the sun.

You should not be able to see anything other than the sun while wearing the glasses—do not move around or drive while wearing eclipse glasses.

Before taking off the glasses, look down and away from the sun.

Please note: It is not safe to look at the sun through a camera or telescope, even if you are wearing solar eclipse glasses. The optics inside your camera or telescope can concentrate the radiation from the sun and overwhelm your otherwise protective glasses.

While it is safe to remove the protective eyeware only during totality, the moment the sun peaks out from behind the moon it can again cause irreversible eye damage.

Prevention is key: When in doubt, keep the glasses on for the entire solar eclipse to avoid damaging the eye.

Safety Equipment

You must use proper eye protection to safely observe a solar eclipse. Normal sunglasses, even very dark sunglasses, are not safe.

Important note:

Do not buy eclipse glasses from unknown sources! (eg entities stumbled upon though Amazon)—There is no way of ensuring that glasses from unknown sources will meet the necessary safety requirements.

There are counterfeit solar eclipse glasses in circulation.

The following are some steps you can take to assess whether your glasses are safe:

Next, try your glasses in a controlled manner outside on a sunny day—put on your glasses and look around, but not toward the sun. You should not be able to see anything.

Next, try looking at the reflection of the sun in a window, on a shiny surface, or reflected in water. You should only see a very very faint glimmer of the sun.

Only after all of the above tests have been passed, you should test with the sun: looking away from the sun, put your glasses on, and then quickly and briefly look up at the sun, then look away. You should see a dim, clearly defined circle through the glasses. It should not appear bright.

Once all of these tests has been passed successfully, there is a good chance* that your glasses are safe.

To be considered safe, glasses must meet the ISO-12312-2 safety standard. Beyond what typical sunglasses accomplish, this standard ensures:

99% UV blockage (ultraviolet radiation)

97% IR blockage (infrared radiation)

99.99% visible light blockage

UV and IR are wavelengths of radiation that you cannot see, but that can still harm your eyes. This is why it is important to ensure you use glasses that meet these safety standards, beyond simply very very dark sunglasses.

The best protection will be to acquire your glasses from a reputable source.

Risks & Eye Health

Failing to properly protect yourself when looking at the sun can cause a number of injuries to your eyes, including irreversible blind-spots (also called "scotomas") in your vision.

The following are some of the injuries that you can sustain by looking at the sun without protection:

On the back of the eye: Solar Retinopathy

The intensity of the sun's radiation can damage the back of your eye—much like focussing sunlight through a magnifying glass to start a fire, the lens in your eye focusses radiation from the sun on the light-sensitive back of your eye ("retina").

The cause of the damage, though, is not the "heat" of the sun, but rather a chemical reaction involving the ultraviolet and near-infrared radiation from the sun.

There is no treatment for solar retinopathy: If you think you have sustained eye damage, seek NON-URGENT eye care—there is nothing that can be done urgently to help.

On the front of the eye:

ultravioled radiation can burn the sensitive tissues on the front of your eye, causing a "sunburn" on your eye. This painful conditions is called solar keratitis

infrared radiation can contribute to cataract formation

Our department will be staffing a solar retinopathy clinic the week of the total eclipse to see any injuries sustained from the event.

Please note: this clinic is by referral only; Please go to an Emergency Department or Urgent Care Centre, or to your regular health or eye-health provider for a referral.

Grand Rounds Presentation

Accessibility

The Eclipse Soundscapes app is a multi-sensory tool designed to allow alternate ways to experience astronomical events like the total eclipse taking place in April—events which are typically considered "highly visual" in nature.

The application includes countdowns, real-time narration with illustrative descriptions, and a "rumble map" designed to allow the user to feel and hear the eclipse.