Things to avoid staring at:
- a woman’s cleavage
- a large facial mole
- a couple making out in public
- the sun
The answer to this question is that you probably will not go blind, but staring at an eclipse can indeed cause harm.
The eclipse of the sun on August 11, 1999, put many people at risk of solar retinopathy. Solar retinopathy is the fancy name for damage to the back of the eye caused when radiation from the sun is concentrated by the lens onto the retina. This radiation causes a burn. Solar retinopathy has been studied in medical literature, and surprisingly the damage it causes is not as severe as previously thought. A group of researchers in the United Kingdom studied forty people, who experienced eye problems after the August 11, 1999, solar eclipse. It was found that only half suffered from eye discomfort. Only 20 percent of the group of forty reported some damage seven months after the eclipse. These were people who looked directly at the eclipse. It is unclear if these same patients were also staring at cleavage, moles, or amorous couples.
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"Will staring at an eclipse make you go blind?" was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 2:49 am.