As an amateur astronomer, I learned to NEVER EVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN, whether wearing special glasses or not. And at that time, I had never heard of "solar eclipse glasses". I used the ultra-safe method of directing my telescope's image of the sun down onto a matte metal plate for safe viewing. Our only other tool was a piece of cardboard with a hole pricked in it, projected down at the sidewalk or onto a viewing surface to see the solar eclipse take shape. Of course, it is safe to look at a total solar eclipse (see below from http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/solar-and-lunar-eclipses-in-2017/), but NEVER look at a partial eclipse without some protective means.
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.