Looking at an eclipse without special glasses can damage your eyes [Video]

Did you look at the solar eclipse without special glasses? You could be at risk of eclipse retinopathy, or solar retinopathy. Those are terms for what occurs when a person damages their eyes while looking at the sun during an eclipse, and it can cause permanent damage if a person’s eyes aren’t fully protected.

Your retina is a thin tissue in the back of your eye that senses light and sends signals to the brain. With the sun, the front part of your eye called the lens essentially works like a magnifying glass. That can burn the retina and essentially lead to a hole in your vision, and that can happen in a matter of seconds. It can take hours or days to show symptoms. Those can include sore eyes, blurry vision or seeing distorted shapes, colors or sizes of things. Headaches are common too.  

There’s no treatment for solar …