DAMAGE TO EYES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26917, 1 November 1948, Page 4

DAMAGE TO EYES

WARNING FROM SPECIALIST ECLIPSE OF SUN TO-DAY A warning that only a heavilyfemoked glass or photographic film should be used to watch the partial eclipse of the sun, which will occur to-day. was issued by a Dunedin eye specialist yesterday. Viewing the eclipse with the naked eye or through ’spectacles may cause permanent damage to eyesight, he said. Explaining how damage might be caused, he pointed out that unless adequate protection was offered, the sensitive layers of eyes would be burnt.'” The'damage might’ only be -temporary ljut it , could prove to be 'permanent;—although not leading to complete blindness. Special care would have to be taken with children. ,•. Throughout the Dominion the eclipse ,jyill be seen as ,a partial one. with varying degrees of obscuration according to the observers’ distances from the point of last contact. For Dunedin, ■observers the first stages of the eclipse .will occui at 6.39 p.m., when the moon %; 11 encroach on the western edge or .*Uimb ”of tne sun. Slowly the black • bulk of the moon will spread over the solar disc, and at 7.28 the sun will ,«et about 86 per cent, obscured, before The maximum phase is attained.