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Eclipse glasses

You do not have to buy anything to watch this eclipse. A pinhole in a piece of card, or the shade under a leafy tree, shows the crescent safely and costs nothing - both are explained here. Glasses are the better view if you have them, and the only way to look at the Sun directly.

What to buy

All of these are from Absolute Eclipse, who manufacture in Latvia and publish the independent EN ISO 12312-2 test report and a conformity declaration for each batch. That is the thing worth checking, and it is why this page names one maker rather than pointing at a marketplace: a listing can print the certification number on the card without ever having been tested against it, and the seller behind a listing changes while the page stays put.

  • Black card eclipse glasses with silver filters and a ringed planet printed on the arm.
    Stranded paper glasses

    The default. Certified card-and-filter glasses, sold singly or in packs of 6, 10 and up for a street or a school.

    £5.00
  • Kraft-brown card eclipse glasses printed with hand-drawn stars and planets.
    Doodle paper glasses

    The same filter and the same certification behind a different print, for anyone who would rather not hand out identical pairs.

    £5.00
  • A dark clip-on solar filter with a flip-up hinge, shown alone and clipped onto a pair of spectacles.
    Clip-ons for prescription frames

    Clips onto your own spectacles, so you keep your prescription and the filter at once. The hinge flips up, which matters over an eclipse this long - you can look away and back without taking anything off. OD 4.8, EN ISO 12312-2:2015, CE Category II.

    £18.00

Absolute Eclipse price and charge in euros. The pounds above are rounded up a little to save you the arithmetic, so the checkout should come to slightly less rather than more - but your card is billed in euros and your bank sets the rate.

These are affiliate links: buy through one and this site earns a small commission, at no extra cost to you. It pays for the hosting and it has no bearing on what is recommended - the advice here is the same advice that was here before the links were.

Checking a pair you already own

Hold them up to a bright indoor lamp. You should see the filament and nothing else - no room, no furniture, no window. Anything scratched, torn or creased goes in the bin regardless of what is printed on it, and so does any pair whose provenance you cannot account for.

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