12 August, 2017
That's a big problem: if you buy, say, a counterfeit Kate Spade purse, you're out a few hundred bucks.
To help combat the fraudsters, the organization posted a list of vendors from which you can snag a pair of glasses that are guaranteed to work. Oh, and you'll go blind. Not ever; even doing so for a fraction of a second could cause permanent eye damage, up to and including blindness. So, if you walk through your house and you can still view ordinary household lights through your eclipse glasses or handheld viewer, then that means your device is bogus.
To catch the entire eclipse, you'll need to travel to the Carolinas, otherwise you can catch 74 percent of the sun get covered by the moon in CNY.
Wilson County will be the center of the national craze August 21 as many parts of the county fall within a few seconds of the maximum amount of totality, or darkness during the solar eclipse. The public is invited to safely view the eclipse through telescopes with solar filters and special eclipse glasses. That means your Ray-Bans won't do.
Meanwhile, the AAS admitted that their list of solar glasses vendors is not fully complete.
But as demand for these glasses has skyrocketed, scams have entered the market. Any unscrupulous vendor can sell you glasses that they claim are eclipse-safe.
"I think it's going to be interesting to watch everyone's reaction because I think we know what an eclipse is but when you actually see it and experience it, it becomes an emotional connection to it", she said.
"It's so unsafe for people to look at the sun even for brief periods of time because you can cause permanent damage to the retina - we call it solar retinopathy and it's really very close to burning a hole in the retina", said Van Gelder.
Because the Inquisitr doesn't link to retail websites as a matter of practice, we won't link them here.
So, how can you tell if your solar viewer isn't safe?
Some of the places AAS recommends to shop online are EclipseGlasses.com, Celestron, Explore Scientific and Meade Instruments.
The total eclipse will be visible nearby in parts of Missouri (see the full map), but even in Fayetteville, a 90% eclipse will be visible on the 21st.
