Can you use old eclipse glasses this time around? What NASA, experts are saying

The April 8 total solar eclipse has the internet abuzz with recommendations on how to keep our eyes safe while watching Monday’s phenomenon, sending many of us clamoring for eclipse glasses. Those of us who watched the 2017 solar eclipse might even have a pair still stashed in the back of our sock drawer.

But are these safe to use again this year?

According to experts, it depends on a few important factors.

NASA says you can use your old glasses as long as they are labeled as compliant with the ISO 12312-2 safety standard, which should be printed clearly on the glasses themselves.

“If your eclipse glasses or viewers are compliant with the ISO 12312-2 safety standard, you may look at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed Sun through them for as long as you wish,” NASA said in 2017.

In addition, and equally as important, NASA said to make sure the old glasses did not get damaged while being stored or used.

“If the filters aren’t scratched, punctured, or torn, you may reuse them indefinitely,” experts said.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Astronomical Society echo this, saying modern eclipse glasses do not expire unless they’ve been damaged.

“Older eclipse glasses used materials that degraded over time, so they were often printed with a 3-year expiration period,” AAO says. “That is no longer true. One manufacturer, American Paper Optics, still prints the 3-year expiration warning out of an abundance of caution.”

NASA reminds people that eclipse glasses are not just fancy sunglasses.

“Safe solar viewers are thousands of times darker and ought to comply with the ISO 12312-2 international standard.”

They recommend looking at this list of safe solar viewers.

“Do NOT use eclipse glasses or handheld viewers with cameras, binoculars, or telescopes. Those require different types of solar filters,” NASA says.

Any photographers or at-home astronomers need to make sure they are not sustaining injury while looking through their lenses. “The solar filters do the same job as the eclipse glasses to protect your eyes.”

Doctors warn that the intense light of the eclipse can cause permanent eye damage.

Ophthalmologist Dr. Joel Schuman told WPVI that watching the eclipse without protection can burn your retina, leading to a condition called solar retinopathy.

“It can take somebody a very short time, even seconds, from seeing 20/20 to seeing 20/200,” Schuman told the station.

This story was originally published April 5, 2024 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Can you use old eclipse glasses this time around? What NASA, experts are saying."