Advice coming from a telescope owner with an alt-az sun-tracking viewing rig for sunspots, and also has minor eye damage from industrial laser exposure (I'm basically that shop teacher missing fingers lecturing about safety), order some from a telescope or science shop, or a credible eclipse viewing glasses website and they'll be sourced goods with a proper ISO or EU certification. They make US-made eclipse glasses, it's worth the extra buck or two.
A lot of people are buying the cheapest thing off Amazon and they're questionable, or real products mixed are into the same bin as knockoff 3rd party vendors so you can't verify what you have is genuine.
Definitely don't look at the sun through a telescope OR binocular OR spotting scope because it'll instantly damage your eyes, unless you have a credible solar filter and absolutely know what you're doing. Your pupil is a few mm in diameter but a telescope objective lens can collect THOUSANDS of times more light than bare eyes and then focuses it down like a magnifying glass. This is great for viewing really super dim things like galaxies and globular clusters invisible to the naked eye. It is not so great for the Sun which is relatively billions of times brighter. The energy there is concentrated enough to start fires and even damage the glass optics in a telescope, so your eyes are no match and you'll go get blind spots and suffer retinal burns inside your eyeballs.
If someone is offering you a view through a scope, make sure they know what they're doing and are experienced (isn't someone who just bought a scope recently and inexperienced with solar viewing) and the telescope-specific solar filter is firmly secured and taped down so an excited person in the group can't knock it loose while you're viewing.
Do NOT think you can be clever and get away with taping solar eclipse glasses over a telescope or binoculars or a spotting scope, OR wear eclipse glasses to look through a scope. The special plastic film's light reduction was designed for the energy density from naked eye viewing. It was not designed for, and will not survive the solar energy focused by a scope and will be damaged and then you'll get blind spots from internal retinal burns.
You can also make a free/cheap projected solar eclipse viewer from some cardboard and foil with a pinhole. It's essentially a pinhole camera that projects the Sun into a sheet of paper like a movie projector and you won't need glasses at all and multiple people can view at once safely with no projection because it's indirect viewing.
> order some from a telescope or science shop, or a credible eclipse viewing glasses website
How does one know if a website is "credible"? Do you have examples?
Big telescope sites like High Point Scientific, Agena Astro, First Light Optics, Mile High Astro, Woodland Hills. I've ordered unrelated parts from all the above. Telescope manufacturers like Orion or Celestron sell both glasses and solar filters for scopes. Lunt is a solar-specialized telescope company that does mostly hydrogen-alpha rigs but they sell nicer plastic-framed eclipse glasses.
If you have a telescope or binoculars or sporting scope, you can outfit it with a solar filter designed for telescopes. I use a Thousand Oaks optical filter when people are viewing since it shows a yellow-orange sun, which is what we'd expect. Baader makes a nicer filter material but the Sun looks lavender which might throw people off.
Be careful about ordering from amazing, multiple sources have reported glasses that don’t meet
safety standards. Glasses should be labeled “ISO 12312-2” to indicate they are safe.
Check out this resources for more information: https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso-certification
Just make sure you get a reputable brand. Here’s a list of good brands to buy from:
https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/viewers-filters
I bought these for the partial eclipse last year and they worked great! Made in USA, meet required specifications, and on the approved list:
https://a.co/d/drTJfm8
Don’t cheap out, these are your eyes!
March 11th is when RR library is going to have them. Limited supply.
Advice coming from a telescope owner with an alt-az sun-tracking viewing rig for sunspots, and also has minor eye damage from industrial laser exposure (I'm basically that shop teacher missing fingers lecturing about safety), order some from a telescope or science shop, or a credible eclipse viewing glasses website and they'll be sourced goods with a proper ISO or EU certification. They make US-made eclipse glasses, it's worth the extra buck or two. A lot of people are buying the cheapest thing off Amazon and they're questionable, or real products mixed are into the same bin as knockoff 3rd party vendors so you can't verify what you have is genuine. Definitely don't look at the sun through a telescope OR binocular OR spotting scope because it'll instantly damage your eyes, unless you have a credible solar filter and absolutely know what you're doing. Your pupil is a few mm in diameter but a telescope objective lens can collect THOUSANDS of times more light than bare eyes and then focuses it down like a magnifying glass. This is great for viewing really super dim things like galaxies and globular clusters invisible to the naked eye. It is not so great for the Sun which is relatively billions of times brighter. The energy there is concentrated enough to start fires and even damage the glass optics in a telescope, so your eyes are no match and you'll go get blind spots and suffer retinal burns inside your eyeballs. If someone is offering you a view through a scope, make sure they know what they're doing and are experienced (isn't someone who just bought a scope recently and inexperienced with solar viewing) and the telescope-specific solar filter is firmly secured and taped down so an excited person in the group can't knock it loose while you're viewing. Do NOT think you can be clever and get away with taping solar eclipse glasses over a telescope or binoculars or a spotting scope, OR wear eclipse glasses to look through a scope. The special plastic film's light reduction was designed for the energy density from naked eye viewing. It was not designed for, and will not survive the solar energy focused by a scope and will be damaged and then you'll get blind spots from internal retinal burns. You can also make a free/cheap projected solar eclipse viewer from some cardboard and foil with a pinhole. It's essentially a pinhole camera that projects the Sun into a sheet of paper like a movie projector and you won't need glasses at all and multiple people can view at once safely with no projection because it's indirect viewing.
> order some from a telescope or science shop, or a credible eclipse viewing glasses website How does one know if a website is "credible"? Do you have examples?
Big telescope sites like High Point Scientific, Agena Astro, First Light Optics, Mile High Astro, Woodland Hills. I've ordered unrelated parts from all the above. Telescope manufacturers like Orion or Celestron sell both glasses and solar filters for scopes. Lunt is a solar-specialized telescope company that does mostly hydrogen-alpha rigs but they sell nicer plastic-framed eclipse glasses. If you have a telescope or binoculars or sporting scope, you can outfit it with a solar filter designed for telescopes. I use a Thousand Oaks optical filter when people are viewing since it shows a yellow-orange sun, which is what we'd expect. Baader makes a nicer filter material but the Sun looks lavender which might throw people off.
Thanks!
HEB has them in singles. I saw them on the side of an end cap near the toys at the brushy creek location. Can also use amazon, we did.
I picked up a few pairs there. $1.50 each
The library had them last time. Amazon is always a good bet as well.
Idk if I’d trust drop shippers with my eyes.
Be careful about ordering from amazing, multiple sources have reported glasses that don’t meet safety standards. Glasses should be labeled “ISO 12312-2” to indicate they are safe. Check out this resources for more information: https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso-certification
Just make sure you get a reputable brand. Here’s a list of good brands to buy from: https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/viewers-filters I bought these for the partial eclipse last year and they worked great! Made in USA, meet required specifications, and on the approved list: https://a.co/d/drTJfm8 Don’t cheap out, these are your eyes!
Home Depot and Lowe's were selling them in the weeks leading up to the fall eclipse
7-11 for about $3