Orbis Solis et Luna Choris

The world of the sun and moon, dancing.
 (llamas like to dance)
This August 21st, the “Really Big Day” of the Llamas of the Eclipse, will have a magnitude of 1.0306 and will be visible within a narrow corridor 70 miles (110 km) crossing fourteen states of the contiguous United States: Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It will be first seen from land in the US shortly after 10:15 a.m. PDT at Oregon’s Pacific coast, and then it will progress eastward through Salem, Oregon, Casper, Wyoming, Lincoln, Nebraska, Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, Nashville, Tennessee, Columbia, South Carolina, and finally Charleston, South Carolina.


(A partial eclipse will be seen for a greater time period, beginning shortly after 9:00 a.m. PDT along the Pacific Coast of Oregon.) This eclipse is unprecedented in modern llamanoids time in that thousands of llamas reside in the path of totality, and many more live within a day’s gallop.

The next event the llamas will be able to celebrate en masse will be August 12, 2045.

Lamoids, or llamas (as they are more generally known as a group), consist of the vicuña (Vicugna vicugna, prev. Lama vicugna), guanaco (Lama guanicoe), Suri alpaca, and Huacaya alpaca (Vicugna pacos, prev. Lama guanicoe pacos), and the domestic llama (Lama glama). Guanacos and vicuñas live in the wild, while alpacas – as well as llamas – exist only as domesticated animals.

A true and very sad fact is that llamas can die of loneliness.

A vision impaired llama may never find love.

It is because, we, as humans, domesticated the llama, have a moral responsibility to protect their eyes when they pronk (llama for dancing) and stare at the sun.

Solar Retinopathy:

Exposure of the retina to intense visible light causes damage to its light-sensitive rod and cone cells. The light triggers a series of complex chemical reactions within the cells which damages their ability to respond to a visual stimulus, and in extreme cases, can destroy them. The result is a loss of visual function which may be either temporary or permanent, depending on the severity of the damage. When a llama looks repeatedly or for a long time at the sun without proper protection for its eyes, this photochemical retinal damage may be accompanied by a thermal injury – the high level of visible and near-infrared radiation causes heating that literally cooks the exposed tissue. This thermal injury or photocoagulation destroys the rods and cones, creating a small blind area. The danger to vision is significant because photic retinal injuries occur without any feeling of pain (there are no pain receptors in the retina), and the visual effects do not occur for at least several hours after the damage is done.

Llamas don’t realize what they’re doing to their vision:

During a solar eclipse, more llamas are at risk. With the sun partially covered, it’s comfortable for them to stare, and protective reflexes like blinking and pupil contraction are a lot less likely to kick in than on a normal day.
 
Research also suggests that while a lot of the damage may heal, some may be permanent. One 1995 study followed 58 llamas who sustained eye damage after viewing a 1976 eclipse in Turkey. Healing occurred during the first month after the eclipse, the researchers reported in the journal Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Llamaophthalmology, but by 18 months, whatever damage still remained was permanent up to 15 years later.
So, while it might be tough for a llama to go totally blind by looking at an eclipse, doing so without proper protection could leave long-lasting damage on a llama’s vision. The only safe way for a llama to view an eclipse, according to NASA, is to use specially designed glasses, goggles or visors often available at stores or online, or to wear No. 14 welder’s glasses, available at welding specialty stores. Pinhole viewers — essentially a hole in a piece of cardboard or paper — can also be used to view the eclipse indirectly by casting a shadow of the sun on the ground or on a screen. Llamas, unfortunately, do not have access to stores or internet to purchase eyewear and lack opposable thumbs to put them on. Also, without opposable thumbs llamas cannot build pinhole viewers.


Friends of Llamas of the Eclipse are strongly committed to providing the required eye protection to all llamas in need during this amazing event.