The Great American Eclipse was a rattling , perhaps once - in - a - lifetime , opportunity to see thegorgeous cosmic balletin activeness . It also seemed to evoke plenty of people up and down the country to do something rather dazed : look at the Sun during the occultation without any protective trash on at all .

Although the most famous individual to snub the advice of essentially every scientist and journalist on the satellite was thePresidentof the United States , spikes inGoogle searchesfor terms like “ I look at the Sun ” and “ eclipse headache ” expose that he was n’t alone in this effort .

Somehow , though , things get stranger still . As reported byWCYB , a local news station in Virginia , some mass were ostensibly putting sunscreen in their center so that they could “ safely ” depend at the eclipse .

Nurse Practioner Trish Patterson   evidence WCYB ’s sister station , KRCR , that although she has n’t seen any patients hail in with eclipse - relatedocular damage , she has see a few multitude come in after dousing their peep gob in a ware that is quite clearly just meant to adorn the peel .

As you might have guessed , sunscreen in the centre does n’t have the same effect as a lens of the eye specifically project to trickle out most wavelengths of Light Within . Too little sunblock and it ’ll burn a little as it oozes around the whitened sclerotic coat of your eyeball . Too much , and you just would n’t be able-bodied to see anything anyway .

Either direction , it ’d cause you to cry a lot , which only seems appropriate during an occultation if you ’re overcome with emotion .

you’re able to see where these inauspicious few hospital patient were coming from when they decided to hug some SPF 20 balm into their eyes , but this class of action was about as useful and as sensible as using nail varnish on your clapper , or inject shampoo into your anterior naris . Do not do these matter .

perchance eclipses just bring out theoddest behaviorsin people . Plenty thought it was asign of the Book of Revelation , if Google Trends is anything to go by . One radio set hostsuggestedthat the extremely predictable astronomical event was actually the employment of the Prince of Darkness .