The sun’s UV rays can burn your retina without you even knowing, leaving you with a visual impairment in a spot that could be as small as your thumbnail or as large as the moon’s shadow on the Earth—a solar eclipse-worthy shadow to be sure.

What potential? Without adequate eye protection, staring directly at a solar eclipse can lead to severe and irreversible vision loss. While the rarity of these occurrences is worth celebrating, safety shouldn’t be overlooked. If there’s one accessory your eyes need during such an event, it’s solar eclipse glasses.

Light is refracted differently in certain materials. The way it refracts in water is different from how it refracts in plastic or glass. It all depends on the material and the density of said material of what the light is hitting. The refractive index measures how efficient this refraction is. The higher the number on the index, the slower light travels through the medium, the more the light is bent, and ultimately – the more efficient the refraction is. For the use in eyewear, a higher score on the index means less material needs to be used to achieve a desired effect.

Solareclipseglasses where to buy

All gazing aside, the solar eclipse of 2024 is a date to remember and prepare for. This grand event will cast its shadow across the Great Lakes, offering a front-row seat to a spectacle. As the moon’s passage across the sun conjures the awe of the cosmos, remember that it also requires you to prepare adequately.

So, no, you probably don’t need high index lenses. But when we examine your eyes and begin testing prescriptions, it’s good for us to know what materials are available for your ultimate comfort. Afterall, you’re going to be wearing your glasses all the time! If they aren’t comfortable, then something’s not right. But thanks to improvements in lens materials and having high index options, we can provide you with a best-fitting option that is both comfortable to wear and offer better vision.

Shades for eclipsecostco

Remember that car mileage metaphor from before? That’s a very generalized explanation. Honestly, it goes even beyond eyewear! The refractive index is a measurement of how light travels through any given material.

NASA approved solareclipseglasses

First, higher doesn’t always mean the lens is better. The refractive index is only one part of the equation. Other things like Abbe values (the amount of distortion or aberrations) and optics play a vital role in determining if any given material will perform more or less than any other material.

Solar eclipse glasses, sometimes called “eclipse shades,” are a far cry from the sunglasses you wear daily. Instead, they’re specifically designed to let you witness the cosmic show overhead without your corneas cringing in agony.

You only get one pair of eyes, and while gazing at eclipses that open up the universe before you, you want to make sure you can equally admire it through your eyes long after the moon has finished its transit.

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Solareclipseglasses near me

On regular days, your eyes can filter out the sun’s excess light through your pupils with the help of sunglasses. But during an eclipse, the sun’s rays can be deceptively subdued, so they flood into your eyes like a burst of high beams on a darkened road.

With knowledge in hand, don’t let the sun—or a solar eclipse—catch you unawares. Prepare and protect your eyes because the cosmos, for all its splendour, is one corner of existence where being fashionably late is not an option.

Sometimes a higher index isn’t always the best solution, either. Sure, it’s good to know it exists, but high index lenses aren’t really necessary for most prescription lenses. CR-39, Polycarbonate, and Trivex all offer spectacular lens options without having a 1.60 score like our high index lenses do. It’s all about finding what fits best, without overdoing it.

Where can you get your solar eclipse protection? Thankfully, preparing for a solar eclipse is not as elusive as predicting one.

Shades for eclipsenear me

Imagine the skyline darkening in the middle of the day as the moon’s shadow covers the Earth in what is one of the cosmos’ grandest theatrics: the solar eclipse. The event captivates onlookers, drawing all eyes towards the sky, but without preparation, your eyes are at risk. Your eyes can face potential damage from this celestial spectacle.

Bestshades for eclipse

A quick experiment at home: fill a drinking glass with water and then dip a pencil into it. You’ll notice by looking at the glass from the side how the pencil in the water seems disconnected from the pencil above the water. It’s the same pencil, but light bends in water, causing the pencil to look different. This is refraction!

Lunareclipseglasses

Like any technology, understanding and refining refractive index will only advance. The glasses we have today will seem archaic in the future, simply because technology is always improving. By understanding the refractive index, scientists can look for more ways eyewear can be innovated.

So, with a solar shindig headed to Toronto/Hamilton in April 2024 and your retinas at stake, you need solar glasses soon.

Quality is crucial for your eyewear—whether you’re catching a solar eclipse or simply living under the sun’s daily reign—and safety is non-negotiable.

Talk to the eye care experts at York Mills Eye Care and schedule your next eye exam to get your eyes ready to catch the solar eclipse in high resolution.

So, do you need solar eclipse glasses? Yes, you do. Safety makes sure your eyes are never caught looking where they shouldn’t.

Solarshades for eclipse

If you’ll recall from our last blog, we dipped a little into the science behind choosing the right lens materials. Each material has something unique to offer and has its own properties, but one of the primary ways they can be deemed good enough to meet the standard of prescriptive lenses is by its placement on the refractive index.

Following these steps is paramount, safeguarding your vision from one of the universe’s most incredible optical illusions turned potential menace.

Solar eclipse safety glasses bring your eyes some much-needed shade thanks to their special, darker-than-dark lenses that are built to block out most of the light we can’t see, including dangerous ultraviolet (UV) and infrared radiation.

Not only that, but understanding the index means current eyewear lenses can be picked out by a patient and favored for their prescription. It allows for us to make better recommendations and more accurate readings for what a patient needs to gain perfect vision.

It seems like a small change, going from 1.5 to 1.6. But that one-tenth decimal is the difference between having coke bottle glasses and something more modern and lightweight. This is especially nice for people who require a stronger prescription. Stronger prescriptions traditionally mean the patient needs thicker glasses in order to see 20⁄20. But with these improvements in the refractive index, someone with a strong prescription can achieve 20⁄20 vision with thinner and lighter glasses.