Just a warning to anyone interested in the coming eclipse. Avoid the glasses sold at Canadian Tire. I just bought two pairs of eclipse glasses at Canadian Tire. I decided to test them right after I got outside and immediately noticed an issue. Both glasses have a hazy appearance around the sun.
With proper eclipse glasses the sun should appear crisp and not too bright. You should be able to distinctly see the edge of the sun and even see detail on the surface. There should be no haze of any kind. If you see any kind of haze, immediately take off the glasses and throw them out.
I knew the glasses from Canadian Tire were suspect because they had “NASA APPROVED” on the sides, which is why I bought them. I wanted to test them.
There is no such thing as “NASA APPROVED”. NASA doesn’t approve or certify anything. If you see that, it’s a massive red flag.
One very good trusted source for where to buy eclipse glasses is the American Astronomical Society which has a list of trusted vendors. I myself bought a bulk quantity from solareyewear.ca and have tested the glasses to be working properly.
https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/viewers-filters
Unfortunately, there will be a massive amount of scams going around with eclipse glasses and shady people trying to make a quick buck. Don’t risk it and make sure your glasses will protect your eyes.
If someone tries to convince you that their glasses are genuine because they have ISO-12312-2 printed on them, it doesn’t matter. I could print that on a pair of toilet paper rolls taped together, but that doesn’t mean it’ll protect your eyes.
Here are some resources to check out:
https://aas.org/press/american-astronomical-society-warns-counterfeit-fake-eclipse-glasses
I ordered 2 sets from Amazon in January (because I forgot to order them last year when I bought 6x6" sheets for my cameras/telescope) and they were wildly different.
They both have about the same attenuation but one set has the metalized front surface I was expecting, the other set is just a REALLY strong neutral density filter. I suspect that they both work the same but I’ll be sticking to the metalized ones that use the same material as the photography filters.
There are a number of different types. The two most common ones are the metalized ones, where the sun will appear white, and another kind, where the sun appears yellow. They are both effective protection. The other filters are usually used for solar astronomy equipment, which can also be pretty awesome.
Source: some random person on the internet who was lucky enough to be able to take a trip to see the annular eclipse last year and did a lot of research before buying some equipment.
Wicked! The black filters are just the right size for my small set of binoculars.