Eclipse Viewing through a Kodak #3 safelight filter?

[Kimberly Anderson]

Instead of welding glass? Probably not but I have a few of them, so I thought I'd ask...

[Michael Cienfuegos]

No! A #3 safelight filter is NOT safe. IF you use a welding lens, you need at least a #14. I would recommend checking with a telescope dealer for the proper solar filter. You have only one pair of eyes, and if you burn your retina using the wrong filter you are screwed. :(

[Bill Burk]

I would hesitate to look directly at the sun.

Make a pinhole viewer (that projects the sun's image on paper), it's so safe it is obvious.

[Kimberly Anderson]

I got some eclipse glasses but I was just wondering about the Kodak filter. I also have a welding mask, but it's an instant on and is no good for viewing an eclipse.

[Peter Mounier]

Here's an interesting page on viewing filters for the eclipse.

http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/filters.html#pfilter

Peter

[Kirk Gittings]

How about stacking some neutral density filters?

[Old-N-Feeble]

What about stacked polarizers turned to block nearly all light?

[Bill Burk]

Here's an interesting page on viewing filters for the eclipse.

http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/filters.html#pfilter

Peter

Thanks Peter,

Notice that infrared cooks your eyes. Notice that black slides transmit 50% infrared.

I looked at the chart for Kodak Safelight Filter No. 3 (Dark Green) in publication B-3 Kodak Filters for Scientific and Technical Uses...

It appears to transmit 10% infrared. This is a lot of infrared. I am worried that you will cook your eyes. Please don't do it.

I would much rather hear that you decided to watch the solar eclipse using one of these solar viewing pinhole boxes...

http://www.hilaroad.com/camp/projects/eclipse_viewer/eclipse_viewer.html

Bill

p.s. I work for Kodak but the opinions and positions I take are my own, not necessarily those of EKC.

[Bill Burk]

How about stacking some neutral density filters?

The article posted by Peter Mounier implies a transmission of 0.0003% (density over 3.5) that's a lot of ND filters. Also the Kodak number 96 filters only modulate visible light, they transmit infrared.


What about stacked polarizers turned to block nearly all light?

Unscientifically, no. I wouldn't do it.

[Marc B.]

You have only one pair of eyes, and if you burn your retina using the wrong filter you are screwed.
True. I wonder, what would Confucius say?
If you must look at the eclipse...only look at the eclipse with one eye open, and one eye closed.
I suggest you keep your 'shutter eye' closed for the eclipse event.<grin>

In all seriousness, please use at least #14 gold-welding hood glass, or a pinhole/camera-obscura device.

Marc

[Old-N-Feeble]

Why is it that I can squint into the sun every day while driving and never go blind?

[Bill Burk]

Why is it that I can squint into the sun every day while driving and never go blind?

You're not putting it on your fovea

[Old-N-Feeble]

You're not putting it on your fovea

Yes, I am. Squinting a bit as I drive. We all do.

[Bill Burk]

Yes, I am. Squinting a bit as I drive. We all do.

I would buy that you allow the sunlight to hit your retina, but I usually avoid allowing the bright circle of the sun to remain focused on my fovea.

When you squint, you provide a physical barrier, and though your eyelids transmit the infrared, it is diffuse, not an image-formed focused spot of infrared radiation. But when you are driving you are glancing around, your eyes are constantly in motion. When you are looking at an eclipse, you allow the image you are interested in to remain on one spot of your fovea.

Do not use E6 black slides, no matter how black they appear visually. They are transparent to infrared. I discovered that while trying to attenuate the IR illuminator on my ATN Viper. You can see right through slides in the infrared viewer. A whole stack of them.

If you were to look at the sun through E6 black slides you would very quickly feel uncomfortable. Don't ask me how I know.

[Leigh]

Why is it that I can squint into the sun every day while driving and never go blind?
Because you're not looking specifically at the sun for an extended period.

You are (supposed to be) looking at the road and driving conditions in front of you, and at your surroundings.

Heat, as in the effects of infrared on the eye, are cumulative. They also dissipate fairly rapidly.

- Leigh

[Bill Burk]

Heat, as in the effects of infrared on the eye, are cumulative.

Ah, yes, my grandmother, the ceramicist, got glaucoma. I always figured it came from peering through the peep-hole in the kiln.

[Old-N-Feeble]

Because you're not looking specifically at the sun for an extended period.

You are (supposed to be) looking at the road and driving conditions in front of you, and at your surroundings.

Heat, as in the effects of infrared on the eye, are cumulative. They also dissipate fairly rapidly.

- Leigh

Yeah, that's true. I wouldn't "stare" into an eclipse either... just quick squinting glances. Maybe I'll look for my deep green filter and squint/glance through that,

[Jim Jones]

Two layers of B&W silver-gelatin negatives fully exposed and developed have been recommended by others as solar viewing filters, although even this may be risky. It should work as a filter loaded over unexposed film in a holder, though. As for the damage caused by looking directly at the sun, it has apparently caused a decrease in sensitivity to low light levels in my master eye and a slight difference in color perception between the two eyes. Dumb kid!

[Bill Burk]

Yeah, that's true. I wouldn't "stare" into an eclipse either... just quick squinting glances. Maybe I'll look for my deep green filter and squint/glance through that,

Squinting glances, maybe... I worry that using a dark green filter... will allow the iris to open... letting the IR pour in unattenuated.

I'm planning on making the cereal-box indirect viewing setup. And my idea for pictures... reflections off the creek.

[Old-N-Feeble]

Squinting glances, maybe... I worry that using a dark green filter... will allow the iris to open... letting the IR pour in unattenuated.<snip>

I was thinking dark green rather than dark blue or dark red because it's in the middle of the spectrum... blocking most IR as well as UV... but that's an "assumption" on my part.

[Bill Burk]

I was thinking dark green rather than dark blue or dark red because it's in the middle of the spectrum... blocking most IR as well as UV... but that's an "assumption" on my part.

These dark green filters, like E6 slides, are dark to the visible light wavelengths. They drop off to transparent in the infrared spectrum, transmitting 10% of infrared, or more.