One week until Eclipse 2017 – Fake glasses
As Eclipse 2017 is only a week away, fake eclipse glasses are being spotted.
You know you need eclipse safety filter glasses to look at various phases of the total solar eclipse, but it’s not easy – sometimes impossible – to tell the real from the fakes.
After covering the eclipse for nearly a year, I was immediately suspicious of a pair of recalled glasses for a couple easy-to-spot reasons. They do not bear the ISO markings. The manufacturer’s name is not printed anywhere on the glasses and the lenses don’t have the typical Mylar finish.
Along with ABC 17 News production assistant Noah Frick-Alofs, we used a spectrometer app.
The readout graph on the suspect glasses shows the transmission of visible light. It is clearly noticeable as more visible light comes through on the pair of glasses in question. The authentic safe glasses block more than 99 percent of visible light and harmful ultraviolet and infrared radiation.
