You may not exist in the Great American Solar Eclipse's path of totality but it's nonetheless going to exist an extraordinary spectacle in New York City, with the moon covering 71% of the sun at 2:44 p.m. on Mon afternoon. Remember to protect your eyes, and be enlightened that taking an eclipse selfie without ISO 12312-2-certified solar glasses is extremely unsafe.

Columbia University Medical Center retina practiced, Tongalp Tezel, Medico, explains why: "Many people volition think information technology'south condom to take a selfie with the eclipse in the background because they aren't looking directly at the sun. What they may not realize is that the screen of your phone reflects the ultraviolet rays emitted during an eclipse direct toward your eye, which can upshot in a solar burn."

Dr. Tezel notes that many noted scientists have injured their eyes from solar observations, like Sir Isaac Newton who ended upwards staying in a dark room for days to heal his eyes.

If you're photographing the eclipse, yous need heart and camera protection, as Chicagoist's Tyler LaRiviere explained in a helpful guide: "If you are using your phone, you can use an extra pair of solar eclipse glasses and concur 1 of the lenses of the glasses upward to the camera on your telephone. For Professional DSLRs you can employ the more expensive 18 Stop Neutral Density filters. Or to save some coin, yous can buy Solar Filter Film online and rig it in front of your photographic camera's lens. I'thousand planning to sandwich the solar filter motion picture between 2 pieces of paper-thin with holes cut into them."

If you're planning on ditching your photographic camera and just experiencing it, as that Luddite Neil deGrasse Tyson suggested, make sure you are you watching information technology with solar glasses that are ISO 12312-2-certified:

The Boss agrees!

Columbia University Medical Center adds, "Information technology is safety to view the sun briefly—for a minute or two—simply while the sun is completely eclipsed past the moon. However, it is a mistake to stare at the sunday during any other stage of the eclipse, even if there is meaning cloud coverage, says Dr. Tezel. It's precisely when y'all can't feel the burn down that the sun's ultraviolet rays can crusade considerable retinal damage."

Louis Tomososki was a teenager when he looked up at the sunday during a 1962 fractional solar eclipse in Oregon—and he burned his right heart. The at present 70-year-quondam Tomososki shared his story as a cautionary tale: "I have a piddling bullheaded spot in the centre of my right eye.... Millions of people out in that location are going to be looking out at [the eclipse] … How many of them are going to say, 'Something happened to my optics?' That makes me sick."

And forget hacking information technology with sunglasses: Dr. Tezel says, "Because sunglasses make everything appear darker, your pupils become enlarged, letting in more of the harmful rays."