How to know if your eclipse glasses are safe or a dangerous scam

Let’s tell you How to know if your eclipse glasses are safe or you have some scam that could endanger the health of your eyes. He solar eclipse of 2026 It is already very close, and many people are going to travel to see it. But of course, faced with such a unique and spectacular event, we will all want to look at the eclipse without frying our eyes.

This is where special eclipse glasses come into play, with specific protections with which protect your eyes properly. But of course, These glasses must have legal approval that certifies that they work, and as always happens in these cases, you can find counterfeits that protect you correctly.

And that is why we are going to explain to you what you should look for in glasses before buying them to ensure that they are correctly approved. We are also going to tell you three ways in which you can verify at home that the glasses you already have will protect you, and we will even give you some alternatives to glasses… and we will warn you about others that you should not use under any circumstances.

Requirements to be legal approved glasses

To ensure that the glasses you buy to protect yourself during the eclipse are legal and follow international standards for direct observation of the sun, They must meet certain standards and include certain information explicitly in your profile. It is the following:

• They must have exact standard: The glasses must be clearly and unambiguously stated ISO 12312-2 or ISO 12312-2:2015. Here, it is worth taking into account ALL the numbers. For example, if it only says “ISO 12312-1” they will be ordinary sunglasses and they will not work for you. You have to comply with the ISO 12312-2 or ISO 12312-2:2015.
• Manufacturer identification: On the box you must put the name and clear address of the manufacturer or importer in the European Union. Be wary of any model in which these contact details are not indicated.
• Printed instructions: The instructions for the glasses should clearly state some key warnings to protect you, such as “Do not wear more than 3 minutes at a time” or “Dispose of if scratched or punctured.”
• Light Transmission (Attenuation Factor): In the model information, you should make sure that the glasses filter is capable of blocking 99.999% of visible light and almost all UV and IR rays.

Three home checks before looking at the sun

Once you have bought the glasses or are going to use ones you have at home, before using them to look at the Sun it is advisable do checks to make sure they will protect you correctly. These are three tests that you will be able to do at home in a simple way:

• The light bulb test: Put on your glasses at home or indoors in general, and look at a light bulb that is on. When you do this, you should see absolutely nothing except the filament or LED of a very powerful bulb. And even these elements should be seen extremely faintly.
• The reflex test: If you are on the street, you should look at a shiny surface in the sun, such as the hood of a car. When you do this, you should see only a very soft flash, and nothing of the rest of the surrounding scene.
• The physical test of the sheet: This is a test to verify that the protective film on your glasses is free of defects. You must check against the light that the Mylar or black polymer filter does not have micropunctures, scratches or looseness in the cardboard mounts. Come on, total protection and no defects.

What alternatives you can use and which ones you can’t

Beyond buying approved glasses, you can also use some alternatives such as welder screens or glasses. Of course, in this case it must have a DIN 14 graduation or higher. The technical minimum is usually DIN 12, but for greater clearance and comfort, DIN 14 is recommended.

The DIN scale indicates the percentage of how much these protectors split light. The ISO 12312-2 standard establishes the safety threshold for looking directly at the sun, and it is around ≤ 0.003%. DIN 11, for example, has a luminous transmission of 0.005%, so it is higher than this standard and is not valid. That of DIN 14 is 0.00027%, below that standard, and transmits 50 times less visible light than a DIN 10.

And what does all this mean? Well then The DIN is something that you should look for in a hardware store if you are going to buy welding glasses.because it is the measure that indicates how much light it lets through. Therefore, we recommend that it be DIN 14 or higher.

Another alternative to special eclipse glasses that are much less visual is indirect projection. You know, the pinhole method or a kitchen strainer to project the sun onto a surface and see the eclipse there instead of looking directly at the sky.

What you should NEVER use for an eclipse are other elements such as x-rays, superimposed sunglasses of any category, smoked lenses, photographic film or conventional photography ND filters placed on the eye. None of these items will protect your eyes if you look directly at the sun during an eclipse, and they can damage them.

Recommended glasses models

If you still don’t have good approved glasses to see the eclipse, you still have time to buy them and have them arrive on time. If you have Amazon Primethe online commerce giant is one of the most recommended to find good packages of approved glasses at affordable prices and fast shipping.

For example, you have the Keyaluo brand pack, with six units per 6.17 euros. There are also other good options in other stores, such as sunglasses MediaMarkt either Carrefour. And also in El Corte Inglés where you have the Hawkers model for 3.99 euros. These two alternatives are perfectly valid, but you can also look for them on your own by looking at the approval that we have told you about.

In Xataka Basics | Total Solar Eclipse Guide 2026: date, time, best places to see it and advice to protect your eyes and your mobile camera