Topline<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to find your old solar eclipse<\/a> glasses from the \u201cGreat North American Eclipse\u201d on April 8, 2024<\/a> \u2014 or buy some new ones. On Wednesday, Aug. 12, a solar eclipse will be visible across the Western Hemisphere, with most of Europe<\/a>, all of Canada and northeast U.S. states<\/a> seeing a solar eclipse. Exactly what you\u2019ll see will depend on where you are, but solar eclipse glasses are critical to enjoy the event safely. Here\u2019s everything you need to know about using old eclipse glasses \u2014 and where to buy new ones.<\/p>\n The Artemis II crew \u2013 Mission Specialist Christina Koch (top left), Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (bottom left), Commander Reid Wiseman (bottom right), and Pilot Victor Glover (top right) \u2013 uses eclipse viewers, identical to what NASA produced for the 2023 annular eclipse and 2024 total solar eclipse, to protect their eyes at key moments during the solar eclipse they experienced during their lunar flyby. This was the first use of eclipse glasses at the Moon to safely view a solar eclipse.<\/p>\n NASAKey Facts<\/p>\n Although the total solar eclipse on Aug. 12 will be total only from Greenland, Iceland and Spain, both Europe and North America will see a partial eclipse. The best views from North America will be in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland and Labrador will see 53% of the sun covered, Halifax 31%, Saint John 28%, Qu\u00e9bec City 24%, Boston 16% and New York 10%. In the U.S., the farther northeast you are, the bigger the partial eclipse you\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n Eclipse glasses or front-mounted solar filters will be essential at all times. Solar eclipse glasses are available widely online and in local stores and cost about $3 each.<\/p>\n If you still have solar eclipse glasses leftover from the last total solar eclipse in North America in 2024, you can easily reuse them as long as they are not damaged by punctures or tears. A good way to test them is to shine a flashlight through them to test for dangerous pinholes.<\/p>\n A woman views the solar eclipse in the first phase of a total eclipse in Grand Teton National Park on August 21, 2017 outside Jackson, Wyoming. Thousands of people have flocked to the Jackson and Teton National Park area for the 2017 solar eclipse which will be one of the areas that will experience a 100% eclipse on Monday August 21, 2017. (Photo by George Frey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty ImagesWho Makes Safe Solar Eclipse Glasses In The U.S. And Europe<\/p>\n Major manufacturers in the U.S. of certified safe solar eclipse glasses and viewers are Tennessee-based American Paper Optics<\/a>, Arizona-based Thousand Oaks Optical<\/a>, California-based Rainbow Symphony<\/a>, and Missouri-based DayStar Filters<\/a>. In Europe, solar eclipse glasses manufacturers include Latvia-based Absolute Eclipse<\/a> and Germany\u2019s Baader Planetarium<\/a>. <\/p>\n Over 75 million solar eclipse glasses were sold in the U.S. for the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. The global eclipse glasses market size was valued at approximately $225.2 million in 2024, according to Custom Market Insights<\/a>, and is projected to increase to $326.1 million by 2033 \u2014 the year of the next U.S. total solar eclipse, in Alaska. About 71% of all eclipse glasses were sold in the final 30 days leading up to the April 8, 2024 eclipse.<\/p>\n Fears Grow About Shortages In Europe<\/p>\n With the path of totality in Europe traveling through Greenland, Iceland and Spain, the focus has been on these three countries about to witness a total solar eclipse. That\u2019s left the rest of Europe \u2014 which is due to see a very deep partial solar eclipse \u2014 largely unprepared. Although the event won\u2019t be total in most of Europe, solar eclipse glasses are crucial to see any of the partial phases. \u201cThe August 12th eclipse in Europe is tracking toward a very predictable crisis \u2014 a severe shortage of safe certified eclipse glasses,\u201d said Jason Lewin, Chief Marketing Officer at American Paper Optics, in an interview. \u201cHaving navigated the absolute chaos during the 2017 and 2024 U.S. eclipses, we got to see firsthand how hundreds of thousands of late buyers were left stranded or, worse, resorted to buying unverified, unsafe counterfeits when retailers sold out completely.\u201d The 2017 and 2024 total solar eclipses in North America saw problems with counterfeit products.<\/p>\n A wall of solar eclipse glasses. <\/p>\n American Paper OpticsEclipse Glasses With A Conservation Angle<\/p>\n One of the more unusual eclipse-glasses initiatives for Aug. 12 comes from the Fin Whale Eclipse Project<\/a>, a Canadian youth-led campaign linking safe solar viewing with North Atlantic fin whale conservation. The project was created by the same team behind the 2024 Monarch Butterfly Eclipse Project<\/a>, which distributed 500,000 eclipse glasses across the U.S. and Canada and committed $75,000 to conservation. For 2026, 15% of net proceeds from Fin Whale Eclipse Project glasses will support whale conservation through ORCA, a U.K.-based marine conservation charity. “The path of the August 12 total solar eclipse and the migration route of the North Atlantic fin whale line up in a way that feels almost unbelievable,\u201d said Paige Denton, co-founder of The Fin Whale Eclipse Project. \u201cIt gave us a chance to connect something millions of people will be looking up to see with something important happening below the surface of the ocean.” The Fin Whale Eclipse Project\u2019s eclipse glasses are made by Shenzhen Lionstar<\/a>, which features on the American Astronomical Society Solar Eclipse Task Force\u2019s list of vendors of safe solar viewers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Further readingForbesYour Ultimate Travel Guide To The 2026 Total Solar EclipseBy Jamie Carter<\/a>ForbesWhy Thousands Of Eclipse Chasers May Soon Miss Totality In SpainBy Jamie Carter<\/a>ForbesWhy Americans Cannot Ignore August\u2019s Total Solar EclipseBy Jamie Carter<\/a>ForbesThe Perseid Meteor Shower Begins Today: When To WatchBy Jamie Carter<\/a>ForbesComet Tonight: How To See Comet 10P\/Tempel 2 Now From Where You AreBy Jamie Carter<\/a>ForbesComet Tonight: How To See Comet 10P\/Tempel 2 Now From Where You AreBy Jamie Carter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline It\u2019s time to find your old solar eclipse glasses from the \u201cGreat North American Eclipse\u201d on April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1111940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3844],"tags":[303169,287506,303166,303164,303165,303168,70,303167,413,16,15,303170,303163],"class_list":["post-1111939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-cheap-eclipse-glasses-eclipse-glasses-for-sale","tag-eclipse-glasses","tag-fake-eclipse-glasses","tag-free-eclipse-glasses","tag-safe-eclipse-glasses","tag-safe-solar-filters","tag-science","tag-solar-filters","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-when-is-solar-eclipse","tag-where-to-buy-eclipse-glasses"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116985157858008528","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1111940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}