STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — You won’t want to miss the chance to see the rare solar eclipse next month — but you’ll need the right gear to safety view it.
On Monday, April 8, a rare total solar eclipse will pass over Mexico, the United States and Canada, according to NASA. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the sun. During this time, the sky will darken, as if it were dawn or dusk.
New York state has several cities in the path of totality, which means hundreds of thousands of people are expected to visit to see the phenomenon. Those cities include Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Rochester.
Those who are planning to view the eclipse are being advised to protect their eyes, as viewing the sun during an eclipse can cause severe damage.
Except during the brief total phase of a total solar eclipse — when the moon completely blocks the sun’s bright face — it’s not safe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing, NASA says. Viewing any part of the bright sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics is also unsafe.
And that doesn’t mean regular sunglasses will do the trick.
When watching the partial phases of the solar eclipse directly with your eyes, which happens before and after totality, you must look through safe solar viewing glasses, or eclipse glasses, or a safe, handheld solar viewer at all times. Eclipse glasses are not regular sunglasses because no matter how dark regular sunglasses are, they are not safe for viewing the sun.
Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker and ought to comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard. NASA does not approve any particular brand of solar viewers.
Additionally, glasses from the 2017 eclipse should not be reused.
New York state is giving away free solar eclipse glasses. On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul launched a statewide…
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