counterfeit eclipse glasses, and safe viewing

Post Reply New Topic

Don't fall for phony eclipse glasses

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dont-fall-f ... e-glasses/

' . . . some eclipse viewer makers are putting ISO labels on their products as they try to cash in on the Aug. 21 total eclipse, the first one visible in the continental U.S. since 1979. Rainbow Symphony owner Mark Margolis told CBS MoneyWatch he has seen an increase of fakes hitting the market. . . '

https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso-certification

' . . . How can you tell if your solar viewer is not safe? You shouldn't be able to see anything through a safe solar filter except the Sun itself or something comparably bright, such as the Sun reflected in a mirror, a sunglint off shiny metal, the hot filament of an unfrosted incandescent light bulb, a bright halogen light bulb, a bright-white LED flashlight (including the one on your smartphone), or an arc-welder's torch. All such sources should appear quite dim through a solar viewer. . . '

' . . . these homemade filters may seem like they dim the Sun to a comfortable level, but that doesn't mean they do so across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. . . '

' . . . What about welding filters? The only ones that are safe for direct viewing of the Sun with your eyes are those of Shade 12 or higher. These are much darker than the filters used for most kinds of welding. If you have an old welder's helmet around the house and are thinking of using it to view the Sun, make sure you know the filter's shade number. If it's less than 12 (and it probably is), don't even think about using it to look at the Sun. Many people find the Sun too bright even in a Shade 12 filter, and some find the Sun too dim in a Shade 14 filter — but Shade 13 filters are uncommon and can be hard to find. . . '

Solar-eclipse fever means counterfeit glasses are flooding Amazon’s market
Quartz, Elijah Wolfson
July 27, 2017

https://qz.com/1040159/solar-eclipse-gl ... endations/

' . . . How much does it matter if you wind up with a pair of glasses that don’t meet NASA safety standards? “All the testing I’ve done have shown that the products are very bright but are not unsafe,” says Lunt. Tests done on a spectrophotometer—a lab-level machine that costs thousands, in case you were wondering if you could check your glasses yourself at home—show that the lenses are, in fact, blocking the most harmful spectra of light. “The IP is getting ripped off, but the good news is there are no long-term harmful effects,” says Lunt. . . '

...goggles made for electric arc welding can be used to observe the sun, [but] they must have a shade scale number of 12 or higher. Shade 13 is ideal for solar viewing, but that shade is typically not sold in stores...

https://www.space.com/36941-solar-eclip ... guide.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... cd4b3a1ca8

At the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the physics department handed out nearly 500 pairs of eclipse glasses before being notified Thursday that the items might not be safe.

The top is the real one. The bottom is the fake. And the fake has the exact same ISO number.

I'm calling the article author's square versus round thing bogus.

A South Carolina couple claims in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit that Amazon sold defective eclipse-watching glasses that partially blinded them during the historic coast-to-coast solar eclipse on August 21.

Corey Payne and fiancée Kayla Harris say in their lawsuit that because of the eyewear Payne purchased from Amazon, the couple is now suffering from "blurriness, a central blind spot, increased sensitivity, changes in perception of color, and distorted vision."