Maybe your mother told you it’s not polite to stare.
It’s not safe either, NASA says, if you’re looking at Thursday’s partial solar eclipse.
“Don’t stare,” NASA says. “Even at maximum eclipse, a sliver of sun peeking out from behind the Moon can still cause pain and eye damage. Direct viewing should only be attempted with the aid of a safe solar filter.”
The show in the sky will reach its height at 5:45 p.m. ET, NASA says, meaning the Eastern half of the country should get a view before the backdrop of golden twilight hues.
The moon will clip the sun, making it look like a fingernail as it sets in the west for most of the country and Canada.
People living in the Central Time Zone will have the best view, NASA says. New England and Hawaii will miss out on this one.
The eclipse should last for over two hours.
Protect your eyes
While enjoying the view, protect your eyes, NASA says.
There are some old tricks to viewing indirectly, like punching a hole in cardboard and projecting the light seeping through it onto a surface away from the sun.
Or let a tree do the work for you.
“Overlapping leaves create a myriad of natural little pinhole cameras, each one casting an image of the crescent-sun onto the ground beneath the canopy,” NASA says.
If you miss this one, the next solar eclipse over North America will occur in about three years — and it will be a more dramatic and rarer total eclipse.
