Solar
This guide does not tell anyone that an observation is safe. It explains what appears in these listings — the standard number, the body that notified it, the laboratory named, the authentication code — so that a reader can see what is claimed and by whom. The instructions supplied with the product govern its use, and they are the authority.
A listing that prints a standard number is telling you which document it claims to meet. This site records the number as printed — including where a listing prints it two different ways, which happens on one of the products here.
Some listings name a notified body with its number, some name a testing laboratory, some name neither and simply state a country of manufacture. These are different kinds of claim and this site keeps them distinct rather than summarising them as “certified”.
The title of ISO 12312-2 concerns direct observation with the unaided eye. Filters made to go on a telescope are a different category of product with different requirements, and eclipse glasses are not an instrument filter. That distinction runs through every solar page on this site.
In the instructions supplied with the product. They cover inspection before use, how the filter is fitted, and how it is stored — and no page on this site replaces them.
50 mm frame · notified body 0068 cited · QR serial on each pair
A six-pack of eclipse glasses with a 50 mm frame, an individually verifiable scratch-off QR code, and a named notified body and test laboratory in the listing.
Best for: A buyer who wants to check the chain of claims rather than take a marking on trust
≈ £20 / €20
Five pairs · EN ISO 12312-2:2015 cited · made in the USA
A five-pack of eclipse glasses from a named European brand, citing EN ISO 12312-2:2015, made in the USA and described as confirmed by an independent laboratory test.
Best for: A buyer choosing on the identity of the company behind the product
≈ €8
45 mm frame · extended arms · individually sealed · packs to 50
Eclipse glasses with a 45 mm frame, longer arms for a more natural fit and individual sealing, in packs of 2, 6, 12 or 50.
Best for: A group or an event where every pair should arrive sealed
≈ £7 / €7
Full aperture · ND5 film · moulded frame for 114 mm tubes
A full-aperture solar filter supplied ready-mounted in a moulded plastic frame with an ND5 solar film, made to push directly onto Omegon Basic telescopes.
Best for: An Omegon Basic 114 mm, or a tube whose front diameter has been checked against one
≈ £28 / €29
100 mm outer cell · fits 70–92 mm tube outside diameter
A full-aperture solar filter with a Baader AstroSolar film in an anodised aluminium cell, clamped to the front of the tube by three padded screws.
Best for: Fitting the front of a telescope whose tube outside diameter has been measured first
≈ $35 / £37 / €45
By its own title it covers filters for direct observation of the Sun with the unaided eye. A filter used with an instrument is a separate category, and a listing that cites this standard is not making a claim about instrument use.
A four-digit number identifying the organisation that assessed the product under European personal protective equipment rules. It identifies who assessed it; this site reports it as published and does not verify it.
No. It reports what each maker publishes and refers to the instructions supplied with the product, which govern inspection before use, fitting and storage.
Any figure written into the body of this page was true on the day it was written. The amount shown next to each instrument is requested from the retailer as the page loads, and it is that amount, not the text, that stands.
Telescopes and mounts are discounted over and over through the year — hardest of all in the weeks before Christmas, which is exactly when most of them are bought — and a struck-through figure on its own says nothing whatever about what the same model was charged at four weeks ago. UniverTrack keeps a week-by-week record for each retailer, so a discount is measured against a figure somebody genuinely paid instead of one invented for the sale — and it says when the moment to buy has genuinely arrived.
