SAN ANTONIO — Time is running out to get a pair of eclipse viewing glasses.
In less than a week, the face of the moon even if you have the best sunglasses on the planet, trying make it a staring contest with it would be a very bad idea.
The annular solar eclipse will come to San Antonio on Oct. 14 as early as 10:23 a.m. The moon will pass between the sun and the earth show a partial eclipse and end at 1:33 p.m. From San Antonio, 90% of the sun's light will be obscured according to time and date.
It’s important to verify that you have the right kind of glasses for viewing the eclipse. That remaining 10% of Sun rays are still enough to do permanent eye damage. Glasses rated as safe for eclipse viewing by the The International Organization for Standardization, or ISO will have ISO 12312-2 stamped on them. If the glasses you use are not strong enough, the consequences could be life-altering.
“What happens when the sun causes that defect is you'll literally have that ring of fire burned into your retina,” said Dr Bobby Saenz with the Rosenberg school of optometry at UIW.
Saenz says he's more worried about Saturday’s annular eclipse than next year's total eclipse.
"We're not going to have that inhibition to be like, Oh, I don't need to look at the sun. Everybody will look at the sun," he said. “The ring of fire eclipse is going to be happening for about 4 minutes. So you are going to have people that for 4 minutes are looking at the sun."
The American Astronomical Society recommends against buying eclipse glasses from online retailers that haven't been vetted. They have a list of distributors that sell glasses that meet the standards.
"Some people who have solar retinopathy have vision to where they can't drive anymore on highways. They have to only drive off of highways," Saenz said. "Look, just just wear safety glasses, safety eclipse glasses."
"ISO 12312-2" will be printed eclipse viewing glasses that meet safety standards.
Saenz said that wearing the wrong glasses can impact someone for the rest of their life.
"If I was trying to look at your face, right, you would have that central ring there. And that could be so small to where, like when I'm looking at faces now, I can't look at faces any more," "I have to look just off center of faces in order to see people."
Which is why it's so important to find frames that have that number printed on them.
"It's your eyes, it's not worth it and it's better just to wear eclipse glasses."
Further resources and tips can be found at Preventblindness.org
learn about five free events in San Antonio for viewing the Eclipse here.
Members of the KENS 5 weather team will be attending the Witte Museum's eclipse event. You can enter to win tickets here.