No solar eclipse glasses? No problem on North Shore

Noah Manskar
Wayne Toolsie, owner of The Village Flower Shoppe in Williston Park, watches Monday's solar eclipse with his family using four pairs of sunglasses. (Photo by Noah Manskar)

Though protective glasses were in short supply, there were plenty of ways to catch a glimpse of Monday’s solar eclipse without them.

The Port Washington Public Library streamed the total solar eclipse — the first visible from the continental United States since 1979 — drawing about 200 people, including 90 children from the Port Washington Children’s Center.

The nearby Sands Point Preserve Conservancy taught another 200 people how to make pinhole viewers out of cardboard boxes while also streaming NASA’s eclipse video.

“They seemed really fascinated by it,” Dan Chuzmir, the head of community relations for the Port Washington Public Library, said. “We weren’t sure at first whether people would be interested in watching it on the screen but people seemed to really enjoy it.”

About 200 people learned how to make eclipse-viewing boxes at the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy on Monday. (Photo courtesy of Sands Point Preserve Conservancy)

Eclipse-chasers from across the nation flocked to places from Salem, Oregon, in the west to Charleston, South Carolina, in the east to experience totality, the period during which the moon completely blocks out the sun.

North Shore residents could only see about 70 percent of the sun blocked. The eclipse peaked locally around 2:44 p.m. Monday, nearly three hours after totality started on the West Coast.

The hot eclipse commodity was a pair of glasses with a special filter that blocks out all visible light except the sun’s ultra-bright beams.

Fred Rapp, an optometrist who owns Focal Point Optical in Garden City Park, said he sold 50 pairs of the glasses for $5 apiece in about three days last week. One woman alone bought 10 pairs, he said, but the office saved one for its staff.

Wayne Toolsie, owner of the Village Flower Shoppe in Williston Park, said he had no luck finding glasses at the 7-Eleven near his Merrick home. So he and his family improvised by stacking four pairs of sunglasses and taking a look.

“I didn’t think that many people were going to buy it, but I guess it’s really a big phenomenon that everybody really did go crazy over,” said Toolsie, 40. He added that this was the first solar eclipse he’d ever seen.

But Rapps said that won’t do the trick to keep the eyes safe.

The sun’s dangerous infrared and ultraviolet rays, which are invisible to the naked eye, get blocked by the protective glasses, but get through the lenses or regular sunglasses, Rapps said.

“You still get the ultraviolet light, and that’s what’ll zap you,” Rapps said.

Pam, John, and Luke O’Connell view Monday’s partial solar eclipse outside the Port Washington Public Library. (Photo courtesy of Port Washington Public Library)

A quick glance won’t do too much damage, but might put a permanent speck in the back of the eye, Rapps said. Rapps got one himself looking at the last solar eclipse in 1979, he said.

Parts of the U.S. will next see a solar eclipse in April 2024, but the following one won’t come until March 2045, according to NASA.

Another safe way to see an eclipse is to watch its shadow in a cardboard box with a small hole, Rapps said — like those that were made at the Sands Point Preserve Conservancy.

Some parents brought their children to watch the Port Washington Public Library’s stream because they didn’t want to risk any eye damage, library Director Nancy Curtin said.

But another crowd of people sharing glasses, filters and boxes gathered outside for an impromptu viewing party, Chuzmir said.

“I think they felt it was a piece of history that they didn’t want to miss,” Curtin said.

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