1. 2024 Total Solar Eclipse
  2. Safety

Safety

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How to Use Eclipse Glasses or Viewers

Step 1

Turn away from the sky and find your shadow. With your back facing the sun, place your eclipse glasses or viewer over your eyes. You should not be able to see anything through the filter(s), so be careful of your surroundings!

Step 2

With your eyewear in position, turn back toward the sky and look around for the (now much fainter) Sun. If you can’t seem to find it, don't remove your eye protection to look! Ask someone for help.

Step 3

During full totality, it is safe to temporarily remove your eclipse glasses/viewer, but you must put your lenses back on before totality is over. When in doubt, always keep your lenses on.

Looking directly at an eclipse without proper eye protection is even more dangerous than looking into the Sun on any other day. It can cause partial or total blindness if the proper precautions are not taken. That being said, eclipses are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the Queen's community wants everyone to have a safe, enjoyable, and exciting experience. If you are looking at an eclipse, you must use high quality eye protection. 

Queen's University is working to provide as many schools as possible in the local area with eclipse glasses and viewers. If you are trying to locate eye protection outside of schools, or are out of range to receive Queen's support, we recommend contacting your local library to champion material distribution in your community.

Safety Equipment

Sunglasses, no matter how dark, are not safe to use during an eclipse. If you are planning on purchasing your own eclipse glasses or viewers, it is recommended you put your order in as soon as possible. These websites will be getting overrun the closer we get to April 8th.

Do not buy eclipse safety equipment from Amazon, as they cannot ensure their products meet required ISO-12312-2 safety standards for solar filters.

Here are a few trusted companies for up-to-code eclipse eye protection:

Rainbow Symphony   American Paper Optics   Lunt Solar Systems

For instructions and tips on how to safely view an eclipse, see this American Astronomical Society (AAS) article

NOTICE: We have found that COUNTERFEIT eclipse glasses are being sold online to people in Kingston – faked to look like glasses sold by Solar Eclipse International, Canada (SEIC).  These glasses do NOT stop enough sunlight to be safe.  You can tell by looking at household lights – if you can see the lights easily, these should be DISCARDED.  For further details, please visit this page

Eclipse Photography

Taking photos of the Sun throughout the solar eclipse with your phone or personal camera may not be the best idea, as it can permanently damage your camera's imaging sensors.

Always make sure to use the proper equipment (aka solar filters) when photographing the eclipse! For everything you need to know about eclipse photography, see the link below.

MrEclipse.com

Eclipse Photography: Nikhil Arora

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