Ever since I was a kid the media have warned about not looking directly at a solar eclipse. The principal at our school would always keep us inside to avoid our burning out our retinas sneaking a peek. Are we all being fooled by an urban legend that keeps getting recirculated every time there’s an eclipse? I’ve never seen a rash of stories after an eclipse about people being blinded or needing glasses because they couldn’t resist the temptation to gaze. –Shub from Ottawa, Canada
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We’ll get to this directly, but first an acknowledgment. Several times in recent weeks I’ve thanked Bibliophage of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board for his aid in preparing these columns, and now I must do so yet again. As one of the last generalists in an era of information overload, often I’ll find an interesting letter in the Big Box o’ Questions and think: Confound it, what did that little man from the Mayo Clinic call eye damage due to eclipse gazing? How gratifying to then find a note from Bibliophage in the margin: Cece, it’s solar retinopathy.
Eclipse blindness results from retina burn–i.e., the retina is damaged by heat due to solar radiation passing through the lens of the eye, much as rays focused by a magnifying glass can light a fire. Some authorities feel a more likely explanation is photochemical damage. Were heat the culprit, they argue, eclipse damage would happen quickly, but evidence suggests it accumulates over repeated viewings during the several hours of the event.
Whatever may be said about eclipse gazing, you can screw yourself up pretty good staring at the sun while whacked-out or in the grip of religious experience. In one report of 300-plus cases of solar retinopathy seen at a clinic in Nepal, 10 percent involved literal sun worshippers–people who gazed at the sun daily or on special occasions. (Some Hindus engage in this practice, often forming a one-hole mask with their hands for the purpose.) Sixties survivors who recall horror stories about people incinerating their foveae while tripping may be interested to know it wasn’t just talk–I found a 1976 report of “a 23-year-old man [who] sustained severe macular damage by sun gazing during a hallucinogenic drug-induced state.” The hallucinogenic drug was LSD.
