The American Astronomical Society (AAS) advised people to avoid shopping for solar-eclipse viewers on Amazon, eBay, Temu, or any other online marketplace as they get prepare to view the total eclipse of the sun on April 8, 2024.
The Society warned that during partial phases of an eclipse, the sun is dangerously bright and must be viewed only through special-purpose safe solar filters. “Safe solar viewers are those that block all but a minuscule fraction of the Sun’s ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. Overexposure to sunlight in these parts of the spectrum can cause severe eye injury, ranging from temporarily impaired vision to permanent blindness.” (Camera lenses also need filters to record a solar eclipse.)
Solar viewers that comply with the transmittance requirements of ISO 12312-2 are safe, but the society found that many sellers have been advertising compliance with the standard even though their products weren’t tested. “In the course of vetting suppliers asking to be added to our list, we’ve examined test reports posted on their websites or provided to us directly by their manufacturers – and some of these test reports are at best questionable and at worst clearly bogus.”
The AAS claimed that among the worst offenders were overseas manufacturers who print the name of an American manufacturer on their viewers. “This is pure fraud by bad actors,” it said, but added, “not all sellers of eclipse glasses that haven’t been tested properly are bad actors. In most cases, they simply believed their supplier when told, or when shown documentation purporting to confirm, that the products comply with ISO 12312-2. Sadly, their trust in others led them to be duped.”
The AAS compiled a list of “Suppliers of Safe Solar Viewers & Filters” on its website, where it warned against searching for eclipse glasses on Amazon, eBay, Temu.
Just because a vendor is not listed on the AAS solar eclipse website does not mean that their products are unsafe, it said. “We list more than 100 sellers of solar viewers, but there are hundreds more – especially on sites like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay.”
In reporting the story, NPR cited the AAS warnings and noted that Amazon had temporarily pulled some eclipse glasses from its website in advance of the 2017 eclipse.
The AAS findings show sellers should be as careful in sourcing inventory as consumers are in shopping for viewers.
