Watching the solar eclipse today with your phone could damage not only your device but your vision, too, experts have told Metro.
Even when a big chunk of our star is obscured by the moon, otherwise called a partial solar eclipse, you should never look directly at the sun.
Stargazers need to buy special protective gear called eclipse glasses to see it, though most are sold out online and in stores.
Follow Metro’s live blog for the latest coverage of the 2026 solar eclipse
Wait, can’t I just watch it through my phone camera?
This might seem like the most obvious solution, but experts caution against it.
After all, to watch the eclipse through cameras, binoculars or telescopes, you need a special solar filter.
Boots told that eclipse chasers shouldn’t watch through their phone screens, in line with the advice issued by the College of Optometrists.
As did Emil Kurniawan of OCL Vision, a lasik surgeon in London.
‘Selfie mode creates a false sense of security. People assume the phone is acting as a shield, but it isn’t,’ he says.
‘The temptation to manoeuvre yourself and your camera may then inadvertently cause you to glimpse the sun and risk permanent vision damage.
‘During any partial phase, that brief exposure is enough to injure the retina. The distraction of composing the perfect shot makes accidental exposure even more likely.’
Pointing either the back or front-facing phone camera at the sun for an extended period can also damage the device, says Uswitch.
‘Point an unfiltered lens at the sun, and you risk burning out the sensor, just as looking with the naked eye risks your vision,’ the price comparison service’s mobiles expert, Jez Samuel, tells .
‘A phone camera lens focuses sunlight into an intense point on the sensor behind it, and enough unfiltered exposure will kill pixels permanently. From then on, every shot carries the same dark marks.’
Getting a sun-burnt camera lens repaired can cost as much as £250.
All hope isn’t lost, though. You can still safely watch the solar eclipse using household items and a bit of arts-and-crafts know-how.
Make a pinhole camera
You can watch the eclipse indirectly with a DIY pinhole camera, which projects an image of the eclipse onto the ground that is safe to look at.
Also called a box projector, you just need scissors, white paper, tape, tin foil and a pin.
Cut the paper to fit the bottom of the box to act as a cardboard projector screen, using tape to hold it in place.
Face away from the eclipse and you’ll see the trickles of light stream through the pinhole, projecting the eclipse into the box.
Use your hands or a colander
The most inexpensive option is free – your hands.
Place one hand over the other at about a 90° angle and open your fingers slightly, forming a waffle pattern.
Sunlight will stream through them onto the ground or a hard surface, allowing you to see the moon swallowing the sun.
You can also use anything with holes to do the same thing, such as a colander or cheese grater, or even looking at the light filtered through trees.
Yet another cheap option (though maybe not as cheap as your hands) is paper.
A cross between the pinhole camera and the colander method, you just need two sheets of paper or one that you’ve torn in half.
With one sheet, poke a teeny tiny hole in it. Hold this sheet above the other, which will act as a projector screen as the eclipse light trickles through.
Your final way to see the eclipse is to catch a livestream, such as on Nasa or the Royal Museums Greenwich YouTube account.
Be careful picking a website, as scammers are creating dodgy livestream sites so they can pickpocket people’s data, NordVPN tells .
The cybersecurity company’s chief technology officer, Marijus Briedis, says that during the 2024 eclipse in North America, crooks made fake SpaceX livestreams featuring a deepfake Elon Musk.
‘People should be suspicious if a supposedly free eclipse stream asks them to create an account, enter payment details, scan a QR code or download anything before they can watch,’ Briedis added.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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