San Diegans hoping to buy a pair of coveted solar eclipse sunglasses must move quickly, as sales rocket approaching the big day.
While locals are preparing to get a glimpse of the once-in-a-century eclipse, the essential sunglasses are selling like hot cakes across town. This has proved to be especially true for the Oceanside Photo and Telescope (OPT) shop in Oceanside.
“We've had 60,000 of them in, and we've sold out of every single one of those,” said Jason Brown, an employee at OPT. “If you look through them, you actually can’t see anything at all. But when you look up at the sun, you’ll see a nice big orange dot.”
On Friday, the store will receive a shipment of 400 more glasses, that slightly resemble 3-D movie glasses. They expect to sell out by 10 a.m.
“It’s that perfect timing when the moon gets right in front of the sun, in between us and the sun. We get what we call a solar eclipse,” said Ashantis Davis, the exhibit projects supervisor at the Fleet Science Center.
Davis explained that the last time an eclipse like this passed through the U.S. was back in 1918, and one that passed a portion of the U.S. in 1979.
San Diegans will be able to view the eclipse at 65 percent, according to the Fleet Center.
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Other safe ways to view the eclipse without glasses include a pinhole, a camera obscura or even welding safety glasses in shade 14, said Ashantis.
“We can kind of calculate it based upon dates and times. This is how we’re able to tell you that the next one will happen in about 25 years,” said Davis.
