Just like you were told as a kid, ‘Don’t stare at the sun,’ even if it’s a partial solar eclipse

Eclipse will be visible on Aug. 21 

The solar eclipse is five days away. It won’t be a total solar eclipse from this area, but will still be something people will want to see.

Seeing it on Aug. 21, however, isn’t as easy as simply looking up. Just like mom always said, ‘Don’t stare at the sun,’ even if it is a partial solar eclipse.

Like mom, Dr. David Nash at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse also warns against it. He says ISO standardized sunglasses that are meant for specific sun gazing are necessary to view the partial solar eclipse.

“Sometime in the day or two to follow, if you spent a minute or two looking at the sun, you might notice a black spot in your vision – almost a little blind spot,” Nash said. “If you were reading words on a paper, you might notice letters that are missing.”

Nash says there are creative ways to view the partial solar eclipse, such as cutting a tiny hole in a cardboard box and looking at it that way.