• Fester@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    124
    ·
    8 months ago

    I wonder how many stared without protection, and how many were scammed with fake glasses.

  • TheControlled@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    78
    ·
    8 months ago

    True story: Today I was on my college campus in California, on the quad, hoping to admire the partial eclipse today. Some enterprising young woman next to me was selling glasses for three bucks. I saw some people buy some and decided what the hell. Unfortunately the only thing she had left was some kind of monocle. I bought it anyway and enjoyed the partial eclipse. After around 10 minutes of looking on and off, I sat down to read the text on the monocle. It said it was exclusively for phone use and under no circumstances was it to be used for viewing with your eye. Saying it could cause serious damage. Thankfully no pain so far, but I hope I didn’t do any kind of serious damage. I’ve had anxiety about it ever since. The seller said to not worry about it and it would be fine. She had no idea either. Lovely!

    • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      35
      ·
      8 months ago

      sees phone lens cover: “this is an old timey eclipse monocle”… I’m just teasing the idea of an eclipse monocle just made me giggle. I hope you’re eyes are ok- it sounds like you’re good?

    • neptune@dmv.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      8 months ago

      I think it’s more the manufacturer knows it can’t cover both eyes and so tells you not to use it that way. If your eyes don’t hurt, I’m sure the damage was very minimal. But what do I know.

    • trolololol@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Well the floaties I bought for the pool had warnings in many languages but only the one in murican got my attention: it’s not a toy and it’s not a floatation device. What the hell do Americans use it for if the legalese forbids everything?

      Same story with people treating kinder eggs like a lethal device.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    8 months ago

    I broke out my welding lens to look through. Worked very well. I can believe most of texas feeling the hurt since ‘we’ think we’re immune to most health and safety warnings published forthe general public.

        • twack@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          Mine too lol. I know that isn’t technically enough, but we aren’t talking instantaneous damage like a laser here. You need to be much more careful around stuff like that.

          Regular UV radiation is a gradient, like going outside without sunblock. You’re gonna burn if you are an idiot about it. Don’t stare at the thing for 60 minutes straight. We looked, we saw, and then we stopped looking.

    • twack@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      8 months ago

      Yep, same here. The auto darkening set I normally use didn’t really work, but I just looked through a piece of spare glass I had lying around for a passive set.

      • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Yeah i think autodarks have a limited range of activation. 93mil is probably a bit out of reach

    • MrShankles@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      But that just projects a shadow of what’s happening. I needed the full experience. So yes, idk what glasses people were needing, I could see the sun perfectly fine. The spots and eye-pain afterward was just a bonus feature