UK shoppers looking for eclipse glasses ahead of Wednesday’s partial solar eclipse are finding empty shelves and delayed deliveries instead of protective eyewear. High street stores are running out, and some online buyers are being told their orders may not arrive until the end of the week.
The rush has turned into a safety problem because ordinary sunglasses are not safe for watching the sun. The Royal Observatory Greenwich said it had sold out online and in its shops after what it called an unprecedented volume of orders, while a pack of Lunt solar eclipse glasses on Amazon showed free delivery for Thursday 13 August. Robert Dyas listed Bresser eclipse glasses for £2.99, but its website showed them as out of stock.
For Emma in Tonbridge in Kent, the shortage was immediate and personal. She said she was trying to find glasses for herself and three relatives, but that they were sold out everywhere. At one point, she said, a local opticians assistant interrupted her phone call and hung up after she asked about eclipse glasses. She eventually got one pair from a friend whose mother had bought a multipack. “If we can’t get any more, we’ll have to share,” she said.
The scramble has also exposed a split between the people selling the glasses and the people trying to buy them. Neill Sanders said he had imported 300,000 pairs from the US and sent out 100,000 pairs in recent weeks at discount prices to astronomy clubs and community groups. He said he was getting “loads of calls, text messages, emails” from people suddenly realising they needed glasses for Wednesday, and argued there was no shortage, only late planning. But the stores running out and the shoppers being turned away tell a different story.
Those without glasses still have one safe option: watch indirectly. Jake Foster said people can use a colander or a piece of paper with a small hole poked in it, then look at the shadow being produced rather than at the sun itself. “Don’t look at the sun itself but instead at the shadow that’s being produced – you should be able to see the shape of the eclipse within it,” he said. That advice is echoed in detailed guidance from the UK Health Security Agency and the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, which has warned of the consequences of getting it wrong.
The warning is not abstract. The Royal College of Ophthalmologists reported about 70 cases of vision problems after the 1999 total solar eclipse, a reminder that even a brief glance can cause lasting damage. With Wednesday’s eclipse now days away and some deliveries not due until Thursday 13 August, the practical question is no longer whether people know they need glasses. It is how many in the UK will still be able to get them in time.
