With today’s once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse, millions of people are getting ready to look directly at the sun.
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If done wrong, that can lead to partial blindness and permanent, irreversible damage to your eyes. And you need those. So it’s better to be safe than sorry and use something to look at the sun instead — like a pair of eclipse glasses!
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They’ve been sold or given away by the tens of thousands, but the market has been “overrun with counterfeits and fakes,” according to Richard Fienberg, a spokesperson for the American Astronomical Society. “The infrared radiation can literally cook your retina.”
Buyers beware! Scientists warn fake solar eclipse glasses could cook your retinahttps://t.co/a5kd3WBj6K pic.twitter.com/jPEqESlOCo
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) August 21, 2017
A bad pair of glasses won’t offer any protection for your eyes. And it takes just seconds to do permanent eye damage.
It’s easy to check whether your glasses are the real thing or not.
Right now — before the eclipse starts! — go get those glasses and look for something called an ISO safety code that should be printed on them.
Real eclipse glasses will say “ISO 12312-2” on them. Without that label, do not use your eclipse glasses to view the eclipse.
Just borrow someone else’s.