Don't look at the sun!

This was a public service announcement.

Be safe.

What percentage of people on this board own a welding helmet? Gotta be at least 50%.

In reply to Racebrick :

A typical welding helmet is like a 4-6 shade, right?  For an eclipse you need a 12 or something nuts

A welding helmet is not good enough.

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to Racebrick :

A typical welding helmet is like a 4-6 shade, right?  For an eclipse you need a 12 or something nuts

Welding helmets are 10-12. 

The sun needs a 14-16. 

You're not the boss of me!!

I mean I use the sun to make sure my auto darkening helmet is working.

Know also that it's also not safe to look through any magnifying lens (camera / binoculars / telescope) even if you put the glasses on to look.  The magnification will burn a hole right through the glasses.  Only OK if there's an approved filter on the inlet of the magnification device.  

In reply to Stampie :  I use my cel phone. It triggers the auto dark feature. Try it out.

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :

I'll have to try that next time.

Not saying I'm a good example to follow but I just used #5 plasma cutting glasses under my maxed at #12 welding helmet and I didn't go blind.

Good show. Our neighbors came over, and we watched from the driveway since it offered a good view. 

I've used welding helmets for a very very long time to look at partial eclipses. Mines a 12. Works fine except I left it at home for the wife who refused to use it because the news told her it wasn't safe. 

At risk of devolving into another generational/ regional/ cultural/ wtfe-group-identity thing... this is still a good song (and yeah there are 10000 others w/ the same or similar title and significantly more complex lyrics)

In reply to bobzilla :

Mine goes to 13.  Certainly fine for a partially eclipsed sun for 30 seconds.

aircooled said:

In reply to bobzilla :

Mine goes to 13.  Certainly fine for a partially eclipsed sun for 30 seconds.

This and I also have a manual shield that is at 16 or 18 ( I forget). Got it from a friends dad who worked at a jet engine manufacturer. I was told they use it for welding some exotic metals and looking at very bright things during testing of other things. 
 

A side note is my auto darkening helmet was no good after about 50 percent

Do you people work for OSHA? Looking at a mostly obscured sun with a 12 shade is not going to hurt you.

Wow, this is so awesome...why are you guys looking at me funny???

Solar glasses? We don't need no stinking solar glasses.

FWIW, during totality, you can look.  Otherwise the light is so low that you can't see a thing through the filters.

I was not prepared for the IMMEDIATE you cannot look at me any longer once any small part of the suns actual surface was exposed that occurred at the end of 100% totality.  

Like it was fine I was ready with mah eclipse glasses but it was so fast from "safe" to "do not look directly at the sun"

In reply to nocones :

And it was incredibly bright white.  I was shocked, too.

I look at my son at least 50 times a day. What's the big deal?

Stampie said:

In reply to TJL (Forum Supporter) :

I'll have to try that next time.

Not saying I'm a good example to follow but I just used #5 plasma cutting glasses under my maxed at #12 welding helmet and I didn't go blind.

That is what I did at about noon. The shading would not stay on. So I saw what I could for a tenth of a second acouple of times it would stay on. It was about half covered by the moon. Two solar eclipse in two years here. Do we get another next year??

Funny enough I could hardly see any of the sun during the eclipse, but I got my eyes flashed by the sun while trying to read a road sign on the way home...never could read it but it happened to be the right turn.