Use good eclipse glasses to view the partial eclipse

A partial solar eclipse will occur on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 between 11:09 a.m. and 1:01 p.m. Then the moon moves in front of the sun just as seen from the earth. In clear weather, the entire eclipse will be visible from Belgium. It is extremely important to protect the eyes well if you want to view this (partial) solar eclipse.

“As an optometrist, we cannot stress enough here that you can only protect your eyes well with eclipse glasses. Don’t look directly at the sun! Protect your eyes with eclipse glasses,” warns optometrist Ben Trapp of Etterbeek.

Eclipse glasses attenuate visible light and filter harmful radiation so that the eyes are fully protected. In addition, to comfortably observe a solar eclipse, eclipse glasses must be properly fitted. This means that you should be able to move your hands freely. If you wear regular glasses, they should fit the eclipse glasses without any problems. You can’t see a lot of detail from the refracting sun without your everyday glasses,” Trap continues.

Try it first

Also, don’t use damaged or discarded eclipse glasses that you still have at home. Remember your dear eyes! If the filter turns out to be not strong enough, you can not continue the search. Try on glasses in advance and don’t wait until the day of the solar eclipse.

A computer floppy disk, CD, black negative, or candy wrapper is sometimes said to filter sunlight. These are not safe methods! Direct sunlight is blocked (as is the case with strong sunglasses), but the invisible ultraviolet and infrared rays are not filtered out and can cause blindness.

Only partial eclipse

Read more under this picture

In Belgium, the 2022 eclipse will only be partially visible, as it is elsewhere in the world. At 11:09 a.m., our (summer) time, we see the first “contact” between the moon and the sun. Then the sun will be at an altitude of 20 degrees in the southeast. As the sun moves higher in the sky towards the southeast, the eclipse also gradually increases. At 12:04 p.m. we will finally see the maximum lunar eclipse, in which about 30% of the diameter of the Sun will be covered, from Brussels. It’s like seeing a giant Pac-Man in the sky. At that moment, the sun is already at an altitude of 24.5 degrees. Then the moon gradually disappears before the sun until the last moment of contact around one o’clock in the afternoon.

Of course, the impact on the environment will not be as strong as with a total solar eclipse. With this cap, it won’t get dark (like looking through sunglasses) because the cap is too small.

If you want to observe the phenomenon, do so safely and visit your ophthalmologist in advance.

See also: Watching the partial eclipse