TEXAS (KIAH) – The annular “ring of fire” solar eclipse will be visible across portions of Texas Saturday, Oct. 14. If you will be viewing the eclipse, you need to take precautions to protect your eyes.

As explained by NASA, partial or annular solar eclipses are different from total solar eclipses because there is no period of totality, that’s when the Moon completely blocks the Sun. So the cool “ring of fire” can hurt your eyes and is never safe to look at directly without proper protection.

As tempting as it may be to use regular sunglasses, NASA warns you “must look through safe solar viewing glasses (“eclipse glasses”) or a safe handheld solar viewer at all times,” adding no matter how dark your sunglasses are, they are not safe for viewing the eclipse. 

Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker and ought to comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard.

In the U.S., the annular solar eclipse begins in Oregon at 9:13 a.m. PDT and ends in Texas at 12:03 p.m. CDT.