Solar Eclipse: Safety Notes

On April 8th, 2024, starting around 2:30, a partial solar eclipse will occur in Winchester. Despite the fact that most of the sun will be mostly blocked, solar eclipses are very dangerous for your eyes, among other things. If you plan on safely watching this, or any eclipse, these rules must be followed.

1. Wear eclipse glasses when you are looking at the eclipse. The concentrated sunlight around the moon can burn your eyes, and has awful radiation. Just glancing at the eclipse can permanently blind you, and eventually cause excruciating pain. Important note: You cannot feel it when your eyes are being burnt, and effects take a few hours to set in. So, you will not know immediately if your eyes have been damaged.

2. It is not safe to look at the eclipse through a phone. First of all, directly holding your phone up to the eclipse can melt the camera, and that is not good. More importantly, though, phones cannot fully block radiation! You can still be blinded if you look through your phone. If you would like to take a picture or video, we recommend putting on eclipse glasses first. Then, put another pair over your phones camera. Now, you will be in a safe spot to digitally capture this incredible moment.

3. If you have a pet, do not recommend bringing them outside during the eclipse. This note is really about keeping others safe, but it must be covered. Solar eclipses can be scary, for many reasons, especially for some animals. It is not a myth that eclipses may freak pets (e.g. dogs, cats) out, so for their own mental health safety, you should keep them somewhere bright and indoors.

4. Lastly, even though all of these details are extremely necessary, you should make sure to protect your fun! Solar eclipses are very interesting and beautiful phenomena. There is no need to replace excitement with fear! So, definitely be cautious, but do not worry too much.