Solar eclipse: Wear proper glasses - or risk eye damage

DURHAM, North Carolina (WTVD) -- We are days away from the solar eclipse, and it's important that you have the right glasses.

Some of the damage from looking at the eclipse from the naked eye can be permanent. Optometrist Eric Oberdorf from Stonehenge Vision Source said that looking at even a partial eclipse can damage the retina, the light-sensitive portion of the eye.

The effects of sun damage are cumulative. So you can still get eye damage even if you take small breaks between looking at the eclipsed sun with the naked eye. Sometimes permanent damage can occur within a minute. In some cases patients might not notice eye damage until the day after.

That's why it's important to have solar-eclipse glasses that comply with the latest ISO standards.

These glasses protect your eyes from the sun's harmful energy. Regular sunglasses will not cut it.

Oberdorf said even dark sunglasses allow way too much light to be safe when viewing an eclipse.

The only time you can get away with not wearing solar eclipse glasses is if you are traveling to the totality zone. Then you can look at the fully eclipsed sun.

At that point the light is equivalent to the light of a full moon, but make sure to put your glasses back on as soon as the moon's shadow starts to pull away from the sun.

If you're not going to be in the totality zone, keep your glasses on at all times.