WALMART REFUNDS CUSTOMERS AMID QUESTIONS ON ECLIPSE GLASSES
Walmart sent an email to some customers yesterday (Thursday, August 17, 2017) to notify them their solar eclipse glasses might not be safe. The glasses are Binmer Solar Eclipse Glasses, 2017 Galaxy Edition. They are no longer listed online for purchase. The company said it has not confirmed if the glasses are safe for viewing the sun under NASA and American Astronomical Society (AAS) guidelines. The email says the third-party retailer who created the glasses has not confirmed to Walmart if the product was obtained from a certified retailer, so to be safe, Walmart is issuing a refund and asking customers to throw away or recycle the glasses they purchased. It’s not yet known if the refund affects other brands of glasses at this time. You must have NASA-certified safe viewing lenses to view the once-in-a-lifetime eclipse happening on August 21, 2017. The space agency recommends only using eclipse glasses with ISO 12312-2 printed on them that have been printed by the four following companies: American Paper Optics, Rainbow Symphony, Thousand Oaks Optical, and TSE 17.