Reputable Vendors of Solar Filters & Viewers

Solar Filters and Viewers

Here you'll find lists of reputable manufacturers of solar filters and viewers; these include companies with which members of the AAS Solar Eclipse Task Force have had prior (and positive!) experience as well as companies whose products have been certified safe by authorities we recognize and whose certification we have confirmed to be genuine. Your eyes are precious! You don't need astronomers to tell you that, but you do need astronomers to tell you where to get safe solar filters: from the companies listed on this page. To do otherwise is to take unnecessary risks. If a supplier isn't listed here, that doesn't mean its products are unsafe — only that we have no knowledge of them or that we haven't confirmed that their products meet the transmission requirements of the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard. For more information see our Eye Safety pages.

"Eclipse Glasses" & Handheld Viewers

The following telescope and solar-filter companies manufacture and/or sell eclipse glasses (sometimes called eclipse shades) and/or handheld solar viewers that have been verified by an accredited testing laboratory to meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard for such products. They are listed in alphabetical order; those with an asterisk (*) are based outside the United States.

Note 1: Baader Planetarium's AstroSolar Safety Film and AstroSolar Photo Film, sold in the U.S. by Alpine Astronomical and Astro-Physics (see below), are not certified to meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard and are not designed to work as eclipse shades or handheld solar filters. Baader's AstroSolar Silver/Gold Film, on the other hand, does meet the ISO 12312-2 safety standard for filters for eyes-only direct viewing of the Sun.

Other sources: What if you received eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer from a relative, friend, neighbor, or acquaintance? If that person is an amateur or professional astronomer — and astronomers have been handing out eclipse viewers like Halloween candy lately — they're almost certainly ISO-compliant, because astronomers get their solar filters from sources they know and trust (in other words, from the ones listed on this page). Ditto for professional astronomical organizations (including college and university physics and astronomy departments) and amateur-astronomy clubs.

If you bought or were given eclipse viewers at a science museum or planetarium, or at an astronomy trade show, again you're almost certainly in possession of ISO-compliant filters. As long as you can trace your filters to a reputable vendor or other reliable source, and as long as they have the ISO logo and a statement attesting to their ISO 12312-2 compliance, you should have nothing to worry about. What you absolutely should not do is search for eclipse glasses on the internet and buy whatever pops up in the ads or search results. Buy from one of sources listed here instead.

Be sure to read our safety tips before using "eclipse glasses" or handheld viewers, and see "How to Tell If Your Eclipse Glasses or Handheld Solar Viewers Are Safe" for additional important information.

Solar Filters for Telescopes, Binoculars & Camera Lenses

Solar filters for optics are meant to go over the aperture, i.e., the front opening, and should be used only by experienced observers. Four of the sources listed below — Alpine Astronomical, Astro-Physics, Baader Planeterium, and Kendrick Astro Instruments — sell aperture filters made from Baader AstroSolar Safety Film. While this material, unlike the newer AstroSolar Silver/Gold Film (see above), does not meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard for eyes-only direct viewing of the Sun — it transmits slightly more ultraviolet light than the standard allows — it has been safely used by amateur and professional astronomers for several decades for observing and/or imaging the Sun through telescopes, binoculars, and camera lenses (whose glass elements filter out the excess ultraviolet light).

Many of the astronomy- and science-related enterprises and organizations listed above, as well as others that advertise in magazines such as Astronomy and Sky & Telescope, sell aperture solar filters from one or more of the manufacturers named here. As long as you know what brand you're getting and that brand is listed on this page, you should be OK. Warning: Solar filters designed to thread into an eyepiece at the back end of the telescope, where you put your eye, are dangerous; sunlight concentrated by your optics could destroy it and injure your eye in a flash — literally. If you have such a filter, discard it. We'll say it again: a solar filter must be attached to the front of your telescope, binoculars, or camera lens.

To find telescopes and binoculars specially made for observing the Sun, see the Special-Purpose Solar Binoculars & Telescopes section of our Telescopes & Binoculars page.

Be sure to read our safety tips before using solar filters with any optical device!

Solar Optical Projectors

The following devices are used for indirect solar observation. They use lenses and mirrors to project an image of the Sun onto a white surface. In other words, you don't look through them — you look at them.

Be sure to read our safety tips before using a solar optical projector!