BEAUMONT, Texas — The total solar eclipse is now less than 24 hours away.
For those who haven't scrambled to pick up the eclipse glasses, there is still a way to view the reflection by using everyday objects lying around the house.
As for those planning to capture the event on their smartphone, there's a safe way to do that as well.
12News meteorologist, Kerry Cooper says the sun is actually a thousand times brighter than a 100 watt light bulb.
If you want to capture the moment the sun and the moon completely overlap, it's necessary to protect your smart phone from the suns bright rays.
"That's why you got to have the protection, to protect your eyes. The sun will do a lot of damage to the retina, cornea, and it could be some long term damage, and permanent damage unfortunately," Cooper said.
This is why wearing safety glasses with an ISO number is so important.
"Those little glasses that everybody is selling. As long they're safe and certified with that ISO number that's on the side, they block out 99.9% of the light that's coming from the sun so that point one percent is all your getting. That's just enough for you to see it and also the view it safely," said Will Young, former President of the Astronomical Society of Southeast Texas.
If there isn't a pair of eclipse glasses lying around, there is still a safe way to at least view the eclipses shadow.
It's called the projection method, and all you need is a vegetable strainer.
"You can also take your fingers, and do something like this," Young demonstrates while clasping his fingers in a grid, "If you get it just right on the ground you can see little crescent suns on the ground. You can stand near a tree, and do the same sort of thing. As the sun lights coming through on the ground you can see the shadows of the leaves, and in between those, is a bunch of little crescent suns."
The shadows can also be captured using a cellphone.
"Take those shadow pictures on the ground. Get that colander and get those things. Get those shots too because that's a fascinating way to see it," said Young.
It is also necessary to protect your phone camera lens if anyone plans on taking pictures of the eclipse.
A good way to do that is by using an extra pair of glasses to cover the camera lenses or simply tape on the glasses and take a video so the lenses won't get fried.
"At no point during the eclipse from Beaumont is it safe to remove that filter off your phone, or your camera at no point. Not even during totality because it's not going to be enough," warned Young.