Kid caught on camera nearly blinding himself while looking through telescope during solar eclipse

People who watched news coverage of the solar eclipse yesterday are extending their sympathies to a kid who almost blinded himself following a telescope mishap.

While there are plenty of ways to view a solar eclipse safely, one person had a very close call while gathering with others to view it.

The boy appeared on Fox News' coverage of the eclipse and was using a telescope to view the sky while holding a piece of paper over the lens as a surface to project the image onto.

But as the boy moved the telescope round in an attempt to get a better look at the event unfolding overhead, a bright spot could be seen to appear on his face.

This was as the main cylinder of the telescope was pointed there, and could be very dangerous if it is projected into someone's eye.

And in this case there was a very near miss of that exact thing happening.

In an agonising moment the bright spot edged closed to the boy's eye.

Luckily he was able to turn away just in time to stop it from going fully over his eye, rubbing his eye as he winced.

That was quite a lucky escape!

The boy narrowly avoided blinding himself. (Fox News)

Many felt sorry for the kid, with one TikToker simply writing: "Ouch."

Another wrote: "Dang, did I see smoke?"

While a third, hitting back at people joking about the clip, said: "Not sure how a kid almost blinding himself is funny."

Just so everyone is clear, let's also explain how to safely view a total solar eclipse, ready for next time.

Always remember that looking directly at the Sun with no protection is dangerous, and could even cause permanent damage to your eyes.

But what you can do if you just really want to look at the eclipse directly is to get a pair of protective glasses.

These aren't your standard pair of shades to wear on the beach though, they're specially designed for this purpose.

The eclipse moved north eastwards in an arc across North America. (Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) explained that the glasses needed to 'comply with the transmittance requirements of the ISO 12312-2 international standard', at least 1,000 times darker than regular sunglasses.

The AAS explained: "Safe solar viewers block all but a minuscule fraction of the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV), visible, and infrared (IR) light.

"You shouldn't be able to see anything through them, except perhaps very bright lights, which should appear very faint through the glasses.

"If you can see anything else, such as household furnishings or pictures on the wall, your glasses aren’t dark enough for solar viewing."

If using these glasses you should also make sure that the filter is not scratched or damaged as this could let dangerous amounts of light through.

Now you know for next time.