ISLAMABAD: Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has appealed to the public not to look at the sun with the naked eye during the solar eclipse, ARY News reported.
The science minister, in a statement, has described Sunday’s [June 21] eclipse “dangerous for the human eye” as it could permanently destroy the vision of the human eye while looking at the sun with the naked eye.
He advised people to take precautionary measures during the solar eclipse.
In a Tweet, he said that the second solar eclipse of the ongoing year will occur on December 14, which would not be visible in Pakistan.
اس سال چھ گرہن ہونے ہیں، چار چاند گرہن اور دو سورج گرہن۔اس سال کا دوسرا گرہن 14 دسمبر کو ہو گا لیکن وہ پاکستان میں نہیں دیکھا جا سکے گا۔ آج مکمل سورج گرہن سکھر اور اس کے گردو نواح میں ہے باقی علاقوں میں جزوی گرہن ہے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) June 21, 2020
The annular solar eclipse, popularly known as the ‘ring of fire’ has begun in Pakistan and other parts of the world.
Annular eclipses occur when the Moon — passing between Earth and the Sun — is not quite close enough to our planet to completely obscure sunlight, leaving a thin ring of the solar disc visible.
They occur every year or two, and can only been seen from a narrow pathway across the planet.
The Solar Eclipse that commenced at 09:26 am Pakistan Standard Time (PST) will conclude at 12:46 the afternoon. At approximately 10:59 am, the moon completely eclipse the sun.
Solar Eclipse Precautions
- Do not look directly at the sun
- Do not use homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark sunglasses
- Use special-purpose solar filters, such as eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewers, to view the eclipse.
- Avoid looking at the Sun through telescope, binoculars and any other optical device.
Looking directly at the Sun can
- Loss of the central vision
- Distorted vision
- Altered colour vision
