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Kitchener-Waterloo

Don't throw away your eclipse glasses — save them for 2024

If you have some eclipse filter eyeglasses, tuck them away for safekeeping and re-use. The next solar eclipse to be visible in southern Ontario will be April 8, 2024.

Eclipse totality will take place April 8, 2024 over Buffalo, N.Y.

CBC News ·
A boy takes in the eclipse at a viewing party hosted by Western University in London, Ont., on Monday. (Colin Butler/CBC)

Hold on to those solar eclipse glasses — the next solar eclipse to be visible in southern Ontario is just seven years away. 

NASA says the eclipse will happen April 8, 2024 in the evening, around 7:30 p.m. And if this year's rush on glasses is any indication, they will be a hot commodity then as well. 

Frank Seglenieks, coordinator of the University of Waterloo's weather centre, said in the areas of Waterloo region, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, we'll see 90 per cent totality in 2024. During Monday's eclipse, it was 60 to 70 per cent totality. 
A map.
This is the predicted path of the 2024 solar eclipse. The northern and southern path limits are blue and the central line is red. NASA notes you must be somewhere within the central path (between the blue lines) to see the total phase of the eclipse. (NASA)

"It's actually going to be very close [to southern Ontario] — totality is going to be in downtown Buffalo," Seglenieks said. 

Seglenieks said it's a good idea to store your glasses somewhere safe. Perhaps store them in a photo album of with other keepsake trinkets. 

"Hold on to your glasses. You don't have to buy them again in seven years if you can hold on to them that long," he said.
Taking a smartphone photo through a piece of #14 welder's glass provided a personal memento but not a top quality image of the eclipse. NASA suggests welder's glass of less than #12 grade can be hazardous to your eyes. (Gary Graves/CBC)

NASA notes you can keep solar eclipse glasses that are compliant with the ISO 12312-2 safety standard. 

"Some glasses/viewers are printed with warnings stating that you shouldn't look through them for more than three minutes at a time and that you should discard them if they are more than three years old. Such warnings are outdated and do not apply to eclipse viewers compliant with the ISO 12312-2 standard adopted in 2015," NASA said on its website.

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