Welders Glass for viewing Solar Eclipse

To clarify, Two lenses have EN169 11 MUREX, and the other two have EN169 SH11 stamped on them.

Use a pinhole in a sheet of something opaque. You'll get a nice projection of the eclipse. I remember one partial eclipse here in Oregon. It was a clear spring day, with the sun slanting through the trees making a nice dappled shade -- except that the light spots weren't round.

I've *heard* that AWS#14 shade is good for viewing the Sun during eclipses.

Because the local welding suppliers get a rush sale of these every time an eclipse is coming up.

That is in Cambridge, UK - where there are astronomers and scientists.

Richard S.

I have used welding hoods with #10 filters in the past without pain. My seeing eye dog is not familiar with MUREX numbering, but he says that looks like a #11 filter which should be darker than a #10.

I can't speak to whether you might get damage without it causing pain.

Bob

I have watched solar eclipses using two stacked arc welding filters. The disc is clearly visible, but way less bright than a full moon.

I can't comment on whether a #11 will be dark enough, but I'd strongly encourage you to also add a piece of clear plastic, or wear sunglasses with plastic lenses as well as they will kill any UV which the welding lens (being glass) will not do as efficiently. Pretty well all forms of plastic are very effective absorbers of UV.

Cheers Glenn

Huh? If the filters are for any form of arc welding they have to be good at stopping UV. You can get a sunburn on bare skin from TIG so there's plenty of UV there.

If I remember the discussions here about auto-darkening helmets, even if you forget to turn them on and get a quick flash from the arc, it won't really hurt your eyes because the filter, even undarkened, will stop most of the UV.

Now don't take this to say any old arc welding filter will be good for looking at the sun. Just that any filter dark enough to look at the sun should also block the UV.

Don't forget that most helmets have a plastic safety cover over the lens...

That said, I once had a Tasco telescope that came with a "sun filter" that screwed into the eyepiece - about a #11, IIRC - for direct viewing of the sun's corona.

Tasco - dangerous. Not so much for the eye - but the telescope. The lenses overheat and crack.

My 8" telescope uses a front 8" wide type of gold covered filter. Lower cost ones have a 4" circle on one side. Keeps the eye safe and the glass cool. Martin

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member

RAM³ wrote:

I haven't seen a spectrum for UV output from a welder but suspect it is mostly longer wave UV. There is substantial short wave UV from the sun. Moot point whether a welding filter is designed to filter the same bandwidth of UV. That's why I suggested the plastic. My helmet has a protective clear plastic element in front of the filter. It all helps.

Better safe than sorry.

G

This one had a cap-on-a-cap: a silver-dollar-sized cap on the larger 4.5" cap.

Solar viewing was through the small hole, IIRC.

[I gave the 'scope to my sister over 20 years ago for the benefit of her pre-teen sons and haven't seen it since.]

It's good to have some filtering and contrasting to show edges and lines. It is used to look for the black holes that appear on the sun - sun-spots. And when lucky - a loop of plasma flowing in the magnetic field in an arc.

Martin

Mart>

Try looking through a piece of steel - it's dark enough.

Greg

I did the same thing about fifteen years ago during a pretty good eclipse in Las Vegas. Just a piece of paper with a hole poked in it. I was surprised how good an image I got with it, and wasn't looking even towards the sun.

Steve

probabably the potential for staring at it longer than would otherwise be possible...due to the overall reduced brightness

Brent Phili> What DOES make looking at an eclipse so much worse than looking at the

As it gets darker, the iris of the eye opens wider allowing for more potential damage to the retina and rods & cones. Similar in effect to dark sunglasses without any UV protective lens. At full eclipse, it's like twilight and the iris is nearly wide open.

This site will give you more than you ever wanted to know about eclipse viewing safety.