A 71-year-old man is warning others after looking directly at a solar eclipse in 1962 burned one of his retinas and left permanent vision damage.
Lou Tomososki was a teen when his science teacher told him about an eclipse happening that day, so he and friend Roger Duval stood in front of their school and looked at it for about 20 seconds, Inside Edition reported.
Tomososki was left with a blank spot in his right eye after the sun burned his retina during the eclipse, and Duval also had permanent damage to his sight, IE reported.
The two are speaking out to tell others about the dangers of looking directly at the sun during a solar eclipse in an effort to spare those watching the Aug. 21 eclipse the damage they suffered.
NASA and other experts are urging people to wear “eclipse glasses” with filters if they are going to look at the eclipse directly, and to avoid using a camera, telescope or binoculars to look at the sun even with the special glasses.
A pinhole viewer, which only shows the shadow of the eclipse and doesn’t involve looking directly at the sun, also is safe, IE reported, while making your own glasses with filters is not safe.
You won’t necessarily feel the damage while you are looking, but it will show up later, Tomososki warned.
“It doesn’t get any worse and it doesn’t get any better,” Tomososki told Inside Edition of his eyesight after the damage. “Why take a chance with your eyes?”