Here you'll find lists of reputable
manufacturers and authorized dealers of solar filters and viewers; these
include companies with which members of the
AAS Solar Eclipse Task Force
have had prior (and positive!) experience as well as companies whose
products have been certified safe by authorities we recognize and whose
certification we have confirmed to be genuine.
Your eyes are precious! You don't need astronomers to tell you that, but you
do
need astronomers to tell you where to get safe solar filters: from the
companies listed on this page. To do otherwise is to take unnecessary
risks. If a supplier isn't listed here, that doesn't mean its products
are unsafe — only that we have no knowledge of them or that we haven't
convinced ourselves they are safe. For more information see our
Eye Safety pages.
"Eclipse Glasses" & Handheld Viewers
The following well-known telescope and
solar-filter companies manufacture and/or sell eclipse glasses
(sometimes called eclipse shades) and/or handheld solar viewers that
have been verified by an accredited testing laboratory to meet the ISO
12312-2 international safety standard for such products. They are listed
in alphabetical order; those with an asterisk (*) are based outside the
United States.
Solar Viewer Brands
Note:
Baader Planetarium's AstroSolar Safety Film and AstroSolar Photo Film,
sold in the U.S. by Alpine Astronomical and Astro-Physics (see
below),
are not certified to meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard
and are not designed to work as eclipse shades or handheld solar
filters. Baader's AstroSolar Silver/Gold Film, on the other hand, does
meet the ISO 12312-2 safety standard for filters for eyes-only direct
viewing of the Sun.
Numerous other astronomy- and
science-related enterprises and organizations sell eclipse glasses made
by the companies listed above. If you buy from any of these businesses,
you know you are getting ISO-compliant safe solar viewers.
Astronomy, Science & Optics Vendors
Some (not all) locations in the
following retail chains sell ISO-compliant safe eclipse glasses and/or
handheld viewers made by the companies listed at the top of this page,
so you can confidently buy solar viewers if you find them in their
stores — but not on their websites, as some chains use different suppliers for their websites than they do for their stores. Links are provided only to help you locate the retail store nearest you.
Retail Chains
Here are some additional sellers of
ISO-compliant safe solar viewers made by the companies listed at the
top of this page. Some of these have storefronts on Amazon.com, where
there are also numerous sellers of solar viewers that we have not been
able to confirm are safe (though Amazon appears to be making a
good-faith effort to remove such vendors and products from its website).
We recommend that you buy only from companies listed on this page, and only products made by one of the companies listed above under Solar Viewer Brands.
Online & Other Vendors
FREE eclipse glasses from libraries:
With support from NASA, Google, and the Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation, the Space Science Institute's STAR_Net initiative has
distributed more than 2 million ISO-compliant safe solar eclipse glasses
to more than 6,900 libraries all across the U.S. To find out which
libraries near you are holding eclipse-related events and distributing
free eclipse glasses, see the
library map on the STAR_Net website.
FREE eclipse glasses from NASA:
With safety as its top priority, NASA has distributed more than 1.5
million ISO-compliant safe solar eclipse glasses to its officially
designated viewing locations around the country, including sites of
high-altitude balloon launches and Citizen CATE observations. See
NASA's event map for viewing locations near you.
FREE eclipse glasses from Astronomers Without Borders:
The August 21st eclipse will be visible throughout the U.S., but many
schools and other organizations in underserved communities and remote
areas can't afford to purchase safe eclipse glasses.
Astronomers Without Borders
is giving away ISO-compliant safe solar eclipse glasses to needy groups
willing and able to pay the cost of shipping and seeks donations to
offset the cost of the glasses.
Other sources: What if you received eclipse glasses
or a handheld solar viewer from a relative, friend, neighbor, or
acquaintance? If that person is an amateur or professional astronomer —
and astronomers have been handing out eclipse viewers like Halloween
candy lately — they're almost certainly ISO-compliant, because
astronomers get their solar filters from sources they know and trust (in
other words, from the ones listed on this page). Ditto for professional
astronomical organizations (including college and university physics
and astronomy departments) and amateur-astronomy clubs.
If you bought or were given eclipse viewers at a science museum or
planetarium, or at an astronomy trade show, again you're almost
certainly in possession of ISO-compliant filters. As long as you can
trace your filters to a reputable vendor or other reliable source, and
as long as they have the ISO logo and a statement attesting to their ISO
12312-2 compliance, you should have nothing to worry about. What you
absolutely should
not do is search for eclipse glasses on the
internet and buy whatever pops up in the ads or search results. Buy from
one of sources listed here instead.
Solar Filters for Telescopes, Binoculars & Camera Lenses
Solar filters for optics are meant to go
over the aperture, i.e., the front opening, and should be used only by
experienced observers. Four of the sources listed below — Alpine
Astronomical, Astro-Physics, Baader Planeterium, and Kendrick Astro
Instruments — sell aperture filters made from Baader AstroSolar Safety
Film. While this material, unlike the newer AstroSolar Silver/Gold Film
(see
above),
does not meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard for
eyes-only direct viewing of the Sun — it transmits slightly more
ultraviolet light than the standard allows — it has been safely used by
amateur and professional astronomers for several decades for observing
and/or imaging the Sun through telescopes, binoculars, and camera lenses
(whose glass elements filter out the excess ultraviolet light).
Many of the astronomy- and
science-related enterprises and organizations listed above, as well as
others that advertise in magazines such as Astronomy and Sky & Telescope,
sell aperture solar filters from one or more of the manufacturers named
here. As long as you know what brand you're getting and that brand is
listed on this page, you should be OK. Warning: Solar filters
designed to thread into an eyepiece at the back end of the telescope,
where you put your eye, are dangerous; sunlight concentrated by your
optics could destroy it and injure your eye in a flash — literally. If
you have such a filter, discard it. We'll say it again: a solar filter
must be attached to the front of your telescope, binoculars, or camera lens.
To find telescopes and binoculars
specially made for observing the Sun, see the Special-Purpose Solar
Binoculars & Telescopes section of our
Telescopes & Binoculars page.
Be sure to read our safety tips before using solar filters with any optical device!
Solar Optical Projectors
The following devices are used for
indirect solar observation. They use lenses and mirrors to project an
image of the Sun onto a white surface. In other words, you don't look through them — you look at them.
Be sure to read our safety tips before using a solar optical projector!
