Chances are you and your friends took a bit of a peek at the sun during Monday's (August 21) partial solar eclipse.

Looking at the sun without proper protection could lead to damage to the retina of your eye, but chances are you might not notice it yet.

"In one study of patients that had had eclipse damage, 75% of patients that were affected only had one eye affected," says local optometrist Dr. Amy Forrest. "Unfortunately when only one eye is affected, you don't always recognize that there's a problem."

Dr. Forrest says some symptoms from eclipse eye damage include a slight pain in the eye or tears from discomfort, but there could be more permanent effects.

"That symptom (retina damage), is more a graying or fuzziness of vision, losing your central vision. Sometime people report seeing an after image or the world appearing more red. Those are the signs of possible permanent severe vision damage."

According to Alberta Health Services, they received 25 calls to their Health Link number by Monday afternoon. Most of those calls were related to preventing eye damage during the eclipse.

Dr. Forrest says if you think you're experiencing symptoms from looking directly at the eclipse, you should seek help immediately to prevent further damage.

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