Safely observe the Sun :
Annular Solar Eclipse : 10 May 2013
Hybrid Solar Eclipse : 3 Nov 2013

Annular Solar Eclipse : 10 May 2013.

What You Will See: NASA Total Solar Eclipse Information.

An annular eclipse will be visible from Australia, eastern Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the Gilbert Islands. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes Australia, Indonesia, Oceania and much of the central the Pacific Ocean.

A detailed list of places, times and animations showing what you can expect to see can be found on www.eclipse.org.uk.

Hybrid Solar Eclipse : 3 Nov 2013.

What You Will See: NASA Total Solar Eclipse Information.

A rare hybrid or annular/total eclipses in which some sections of the path are annular while other parts are total.

The hybrid eclipse of 2013 is visible from within a thin corridor, which traverses the North Atlantic and equatorial Africa. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes eastern North America, northern South America, southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

A detailed list of places, times and animations showing what you can expect to see can be found on www.eclipse.org.uk.

Solar eclipse glasses will be vital to provide safe direct solar viewing of the Annular Solar Eclipse on 10 May 2013 and Hybrid Solar Eclipse on 3 Nov 2013.

These solar eclipse glasses are CE approved and independently tested for safe direct solar viewing. The eclipse glasses comply with the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Directive (Directive 89/686/EEC), the BIS government web site has details of the EC directive.

Our eclipse glasses were included in several write ups in the Sky at Night magazine, and in 2004 we supplied the eclipse glasses featured by Lucie Green and Adam Hart-Davis on the BBC Open-University coverage of the Transit of Venus.

The eclipse glasses are cardboard glasses with arms, which can be worn like spectacles. One size fits all - adults and children. The rear of the eclipse glasses is printed in English with the following explicit safe use information, they are also printed on the rear with the CE mark.

For safe solar observations the lenses filter 99.999% of the ultra-violet and infrared rays of the sun and are rated at optical density 5.0. The patented lenses consist of double aluminised 2-ml scratch resistant optical grade polyester film, known as SolarSkreen® (US Patent 3,897,140) originally invented by Roger Tuthill in 1972 (tough optical-grade, aluminum-coated Mylar® filter - silver coloured).

Discounts are available for orders of large quantities of solar eclipse glasses. Let us help you increase the impact of your advertising with custom solar eclipse glasses printed with your own full colour design and marketing message. Don't delay, order today. Please Contact Us for details. (Minimum order for customised printing is 5,000 eclipse glasses.)

Further Details
Excellent web sites for further information about solar eclipses and how to view them safely can be found on our eclipse links page. A selection is listed here:
NASA Eclipse Information
Sheridan Williams' Solar Eclipse Web Site

Manufacturers safety endorsement
Our safe solar eclipse viewing glasses have received an independent safety endorsement from the foremost authority on eye safety during solar eclipses. Dr. Ralph Chou, professor of optometry at University of Waterloo, developed the eye safety standards for viewing solar eclipses.

"Solar Skreen® has had an excellent reputation for more than 25 years as a safe filter material for observing the sun and solar eclipses. I recommend it for both beginning and experienced solar observers." Dr. Ralph Chou.

Safety Warning:
Never directly look at the photosphere of the Sun (the bright disk of the Sun itself) with the naked eye or through an optical device such as a telescope, binoculars or an optical camera viewfinder. Even looking for just a few seconds could seriously damage your eye sight and possibly lead to permanent blindness. Your eyes and other optical devices concentrate the extremely strong visible and invisible radiation such as infrared and ultraviolet light from the Sun onto the retina. Which can permanently destroy the ability of the retina to detect light. The retina has no sensitivity to pain, so there is no warning that injury is occurring and the effects of retinal damage may not appear for hours.

To safely observe a solar eclipse you must use CE approved safety solar eclipse glasses such as those on sale here or use indirect methods such as pin hole projection onto a suitable surface (details of indirect methods can be found on the web sites listed on our eclipse links page).

Please note these solar eclipse glasses are not suitable for use with optical devices such as telescopes, binoculars or an optical camera viewfinder, you need stronger and larger solar eclipse filters than these to protect you from the magnified sun light when using optical devices.

Sunglasses are not safe, you will put your eye sight at risk by only wearing regular sunglasses or shades to directly view the sun, as they do not block the harmful and invisible radiation which causes retinal damage. Only properly designed and certified solar filters such as the ones in these eclipse glasses should ever be used for direct viewing of the Sun's disk.

Under normal everyday circumstances there is no tendency to look at the Sun in a way that might damage the eye. Especially as the Sun is so bright that it is difficult to stare at it directly. However, during an eclipse, the Sun is the centre of attention and with so much of the Sun covered, it is tempting and slightly easier to stare at it. Unfortunately, looking at the Sun during an eclipse is just as dangerous as looking at the Sun any other time of the year. The only exception is the brief period of totality during a total eclipse, when the Sun's disk is completely covered by the moon. (Totality only occurs during a total eclipse and only for a matter of seconds or minutes, it does not occur during a partial or annular eclipse).

Organise the holiday of a life time to view a Total Solar Eclipse, considered one of the most breathtaking phenomenons anyone can observe. (Be ready and buy your eclipse glasses now.)

• 10 May 2013 - Annular Solar Eclipse : Australia, New Zealand and the Central Pacific.
• 3 November 2013 - Hybrid Solar Eclipse : East Americas, Southern Europe, Africa.
• 29 April 2014 - Annular Solar Eclipse : Australia, Southern Pacific.
• 23 October 2014 - Partial Solar Eclipse : Canada, Mexico and USA.

Dates for past Eclipses

• 29 March 2006 - Total Solar Eclipse : seen from Brazil across the Atlantic Ocean to northern Africa, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, across central Asia and Mongolia.
• 22 September 2006 -: Annular Solar Eclipse : seen from South America and then only from the Atlantic ocean.
• 19 March 2007 - Partial Solar Eclipse : visible from Asia and Alaska.
• 11 September 2007 - Partial Solar Eclipse : visible from South America and Antarctica
• 7 February 2008 - Annular Solar Eclipse : seen in Antarctica and the southern Pacific Ocean, a partial eclipse will be visible over most of Antarctica, south-west Australia, and New Zealand.
• 1 August 2008 - Total Solar Eclipse : seen from Canada at sunrise and then Greenland, Arctic Ocean, Novaya Zemlya, Russia, Mongolia and China at sunset.
• 22 July 2009 - extremely long Total Solar Eclipse - 6 minutes 39 seconds : seen from Arabian Sea just off the west coast of India at sunrise, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Japanese Islands, near Kiribati and Gilbert Islands, near French Polynesia, mid-Pacific at sunset.
• 15 January 2010 - Annular Solar Eclipse : seen from Africa, the Indian Ocean and south Asia.
  The eclipse begins in Africa and passes through Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia. After crossing the Indian Ocean it continues into Asia through Bangladesh, India, Burma (Myanmar), and China. A partial eclipse is seen from eastern Europe, most of Africa, Asia and Indonesia.
• 11 July 2010 - Total Solar Eclipse : seen across the South Pacific.
  The path of the Moon's shadow mainly crosses the South Pacific Ocean, it is only visible from land on Mangaia (Cook Islands) and Easter Island (Isla de Pascua). The path of totality ends just after reaching southern Chile and Argentina. A partial eclipse will be visible from the South Pacific and southern South America.
• 4 January 2011 - Partial Solar Eclipse : across much of Europe, North Africa and central Asia.
• 20 May 2012 - Annular Solar Eclipse : From China to North America.
  Beginning in southern China and continues along the southern coast of Japan. After crossing the Pacific Ocean it is seen from much of Western USA along the coastlines of southern Oregon and northern California . Central Nevada, southern Utah, and northern Arizona, Texas and Nevada are all within the annular path.
• 13 /14 November 2012 - Total Solar Eclipse starts at dawn in the very north of Australia, passing over Port Douglas and Cairns the shadow narrowly misses Norfolk Island and tracks across the Pacific without making landfall again..