Looking through a telescope, binoculars or camera lens is not safe, either. NASA warns, “Homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe for looking at the sun; they transmit thousands of times too much sunlight.”

You need to use special eclipse glasses to avoid burning your retinas, doing permanant damage — and if you don’t have those glasses already, you probably won’t be able to get them.

They are not expensive, ranging from $1 to $5, but they are almost entirely sold or given out in the Tri-Lakes area. The libraries in Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake and Lake Placid were giving them away for free, but their supplies are gone. The Saranac Lake Community Store is sold out. The Adirondack Public Observatory in Tupper Lake has sold hundreds of pairs and is saving the ones it has left for its special viewing event Monday. The visitors bureau staff in Lake Placid were trying Friday to find anywhere in that community that still had eclipse glasses, and they were unable to do so.

The only place we could find that still had some left Friday afternoon was The Wild Center nature museum in Tupper Lake. However, their Wild Supply Co. store said they only had about 50 pairs left. They had started out with around 1,000.

This is the first total solar eclipse visible from the mainland U.S. since 1979. Here, the moon will cover about two-thirds of the sun. The path of totality is the 70-mile-wide band running through the heart of the U.S., from Oregon to South Carolina.

Here, the eclipse will start around 1:25 p.m. and last until around 4. Clouds shouldn’t block our view, either; weather forecasts call for it to be sunny, clear and hot.

The APO’s viewing event, from 12:30 to 4 p.m., is by far the best opportunity to appreciate this phenomenon in the Tri-Lakes area. The observatory is located near Little Wolf Beach in Tupper Lake. In addition to having eclipse glasses, it will have astronomy experts on hand and a special telescope through which people can safely get the best look at the eclipse possible anywhere in this area.

It’s a fascinating coincidence that, from Earth’s perspective, our moon looks to be the same size as our much, much bigger sun. That makes our solar eclipses particularly cool.

But — and we cannot emphasize this enough — it is much, much better to miss the eclipse than to lose your eyesight. Unless you have eclipse glasses, are able to make a pinhole camera or attend the APO’s viewing party, take a pass on it.

Instead, wait a few years for April 8, 2024, when the Tri-Lakes area will be right in the path of a 100-percent total eclipse. Get your eclipse glasses in advance, hope it’s not a cloudy day, and expect tourists to come flocking.