Baader Solar Viewer AstroSolar glasses - observing the Sun safely

Baader Solar Viewer AstroSolar® Silver/Gold

Baader Planetarium AstroSolar eclipse glasses are designed for the safe visual observing of partial solar eclipses and for observing sunspots using just the naked eye.

These glasses use patented, CE-approved, AstroSolar® Silver/Gold Film, with a filter factor of 100,000, for direct and safe observing of the sun.

Information about the AstroSolar® Silver/Gold Film

AstroSolar® Silver/Gold Film has been specially developed for visual solar observation at zero magnification for use with solar viewers. This film is only being used for production of the Solar Viewers.

The optical density of Solar Viewer AstroSolar® Silver/Gold is OD 5.0. Baader´s Solar Viewer are CE-certified and comply to the Norm EN ISO 12312-2:2015 – thus they are certified for a safe and direct view into the sun.

AstroSolar® Silver/Gold has no added treatments to attain fine-optical properties necessary for high magnification work. It is not suited to being used in combination with telescope, binoculars, spotting scopes or camera lenses.

Baader is producing AstroSolar® Silver Film for more than 25 years. In the year 1999, during the grand total eclipse over Europe, more than 20 million solar viewers equipped with this film were in use. For the great american solar eclipse in USA 2017 they now introduce the successor to the market: Solar Viewer AstroSolar® Silver/Gold, with eye-sided reflex-free material for an excellent viewing experience.

Why don’t we use this film for telescopes – a simple answer:

When using precision-grade AstroSolar® Safety Film for telescopes, perfect optical quality is most important. However – this film must be treated with great care since the metal and protective coatings applied onto both sides of the film are very similar in their technical properties to the reflective surface applied onto astronomical mirrors.

Since a Solar Viewer AstroSolar® Silver/Gold is used visually at zero magnification, the optical grade of the film is not of prime consideration. Instead it is most desirable to apply protective coatings of highest durability grade, to end up with a protective film of much higher resilience against inadverted rough handling. This is being achieved for AstroSolar® Silver/Gold Film with its metal hard coated layers applied onto both sides of the film, making it scratch resistant without sacrificing in sharpness and without creating a double image of the Sun due to adding up several layers of dark and/or reflective film onto each other.

A single layer of AstroSolar® Silver/Gold Film provides a perfectly sharp and energy balanced solar image - including the ability of identifying large sunspots and without transmitting irresponsible amounts of infrared (heat) radiation as with simpler sooth-filled energy absorbent films which do not offer added IR-blocking by metal reflective coatings.