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Accidental solar eye damage


Merlin66

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Back in January 2012, Martin Stangl had his letter published in S&T requesting information from amateur astronomers who had experienced permanent eye damage as result of accidents when using commercial solar filters......

Almost four years later - the results so far????

Not one recorded, documented case of permanent eye damage.

Interesting.

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It's quite hard to believe that nobody was ever harmed by one of those eyepiece-mounted "sun filters". It's easy to draw the wrong conclusions from "no data" but it is encouraging that there have been no reports, indicating perhaps that the overall numbers are similarly very small.

While that's great news, don't let it be reason to relax our vigilance in warning newcomers to maintain theirs.

Dave

Absolutely, I would interpret this as validation of all the work done to warn people of the potential dangers of solar viewing.

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It's quite hard to believe that nobody was ever harmed by one of those eyepiece-mounted "sun filters". It's easy to draw the wrong conclusions from "no data" but it is encouraging that there have been no reports, indicating perhaps that the overall numbers are similarly very small.

Absolutely, I would interpret this as validation of all the work done to warn people of the potential dangers of solar viewing.

I had one of those screw in filters back in the late 80s, it came with a Vixen 80mm refractor. I used it a couple times, Soon after, we went on a school trip to The Royal Observatory Edinburgh, I got speaking to the guide and mentioned my scope, he told me not to use the filter, wise words.

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I have on several occasions lectured people in camera stores when they started dabbling in telescopes that the only correct use for those solar filters was to hit them hard with a hammer, before anybody got hurt. The warning that these filters could lead to eye damage and therefore lawsuits carried a lot of weight. I haven't seen them supplied with scopes for a very long time. The cheap availability of Baader film may have helped, of course.

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Would people with permanent eye damage be able to read the article though?! I do admit I've heard of cases of people looking at the sun stupidly with binoculars or a few sunglasses but these have most definitely not been astronomers!

John


 

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I've written elsewhere on SGL about the damage I suffered to my right eye while observing the sun as a 11 or 12 year old boy.

I wasn't actually using the screw in filter on my Dixons brand 60mm refractor although I had one.

The warnings about those were quite stark even then in the 70's.

My preferred method was eyepiece projection and I'd use the tube's shadow for aligning on the sun, usually....

One January day the dimmed Sun was low over the houses and, as I'd done a few times before, squinted along the tube to align.

I was aware that my right eye seemed overly "dazzled" and became concerned after returning indoors and realising something was wrong.

Over the next few days it was obvious that I had a permanent fuzzy blind spot in the center of vision in my right eye.

It wasn't black but appeared as a swirly patch with no definition but took on the colour of whatever I looked at. Looking at a flat red wall showed no problem. But looking at a subject with detail caused the colours to merge. 

With both eyes open it wasn't a problem but with only my right eye it was obvious. And to this day it's still there. It just about exactly covers the full Moon which implies a burn exactly the same size as the solar disk I'd glimpsed.

As a boy I never told anyone. Too afraid of the rollocking I'd get.

When I eventually saw an optician (routine eye test) when I was 17 or 18 it became apparent that I had a visual defect. The optician (optometrist) had a good look at the back of my eyes and just barely made out a slight colour change in the center of the retina of my right eye. 

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I would be surprised if such a glance could result in permanent eye damage. As kids, knowing no better, we used to see how long we could stare at the Sun naked eye :eek: , as far as I recall the Sun went blue followed by a lengthy period of the eye getting back to normal. Despite this and using all manner of optical devices for over half a century I seem to have suffered no visual harm.   :smiley: 

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I would be surprised if such a glance could result in permanent eye damage. As kids, knowing no better, we used to see how long we could stare at the Sun naked eye :eek: , as far as I recall the Sun went blue followed by a lengthy period of the eye getting back to normal. Despite this and using all manner of optical devices for over half a century I seem to have suffered no visual harm. :smiley:

I got a similar response last time I mentioned it :)

But there you go. Perfect vision before the solar observing, something happened during and my vision in that eye never fully recovered.

I didn't look directly through the scope, filtered or otherwise.

It's 40 years ago so I can't remember how much squinting I did or for how long. But it was apparently long enough. My memory is focused almost entirely on the aftermath!

These days opticians sometimes take images of the retina during examinations.

I should ask to look at mine and make a comparison. Not due back for another year though.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

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