{"id":811423,"date":"2026-08-12T18:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811423\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T18:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:54:10","slug":"whatsapp-drops-price-hikes-and-queues-scramble-for-solar-eclipse-specs-solar-eclipses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811423\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp \u2018drops\u2019, price hikes and queues: scramble for solar eclipse specs | Solar eclipses"},"content":{"rendered":"

A secretive WhatsApp group was pinging with notifications throughout Wednesday, letting its members know where in London<\/a> the latest \u201cdrop\u201d would take place.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s focus, rather than being for an illicit substance, was for the much-coveted eclipse glasses, which have prompted a frantic rush<\/a> on shops before the celestial event.<\/p>\n

A near-total solar eclipse will be witnessed by tens of millions of people across western Europe on Wednesday for the first time in more than 25 years, but viewing the phenomenon without special glasses that filter visible, ultraviolet and infrared light can damage the retina.<\/p>\n

Queues formed outside corner shops in London in the early hours as hopeful customers waited to get their hands on dwindling supplies of the glasses.<\/p>\n

In the weeks leading up to the eclipse, the glasses were selling for about \u00a35, but many corner shops in London that had managed to get hold of last-minute stock were charging double that, making a tidy profit.<\/p>\n

Many entrepreneurial people have attempted to cash in. Outside Whitechapel tube station, there was a makeshift stall selling the glasses for \u00a310 a pop. Another person posted on a Reddit thread that they would be outside Camden Town station with a fistful of glasses, at \u00a320 a pair, until they had sold out.<\/p>\n

The scramble to buy the glasses caused some tempers to boil over. One corner shop owner appealed to members of a pop-up WhatsApp group to behave themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hearing very bad things about customers and how they are treating the employees and the stores, threatening with bad reviews. Do not drive across the country and then blame the store if they don\u2019t have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali Raza, the owner of the AM2PM convenience store in Whitechapel, said he had had to turn people away all day. \u201cOn Sunday we had people coming from Surrey, Southend-on-Sea. Yesterday night a lady came from Southampton, and loads of people have come from Birmingham as well. We\u2019re too busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eclipse glasses on sale at 6am on Wednesday in Weymouth, Dorset. Photograph: Finnbarr Webster\/Getty<\/p>\n

He said he had \u201calready sold 6,000 pairs\u201d on Wednesday. \u201cAt 2.30am we had a delivery from Spain and by 9.30am we sold out [of] everything,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Royal Greenwich Observatory said it had sold more than 15,000 pairs of glasses in the past month and had now sold out of them.<\/p>\n

Exmoor national park had also run out of the glasses. A spokesperson said: \u201cWe got to a point where we couldn\u2019t get any more from our supplier in time and we don\u2019t need them again, not until 2081.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branches of Sunglass Hut were forced to erect signs saying they did not sell eclipse glasses after being inundated with people searching for them.<\/p>\n

Looking at the eclipse without eye protection can permanently damage your eyes. While it is not medically more dangerous to look at the solar eclipse than the sun under normal conditions, the risk is greater because it\u2019s easier to look at the sun when it\u2019s mostly obscured.<\/p>\n

Panayiotis Maghsoudlou, a clinical lecturer in ophthalmology at the University of Bristol, said: \u201cUnder normal conditions the eye\u2019s protective responses do the work: painful glare, reflex aversion within a second or so, blepharospasm, tearing, and a constricted pupil. Almost nobody can hold fixation on the full disc long enough to reach the photochemical damage threshold.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring an eclipse, the sky darkens, your pupils widen, and the glare drops enough that staring feels comfortable, so people gaze at the exposed sliver of sun for minutes with a wide-open pupil and no warning discomfort. That\u2019s why eye injuries cluster around eclipses even though the sun itself is unchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Diment, assistant manager of Howleys toy shop in Weymouth, models the safety eyewear. Photograph: Geoff Moore\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

You also may not immediately realise the damage. \u201cThe retina does not contain pain receptors. Symptoms generally appear later, as blurred or reduced central vision, a blind spot, distortion of straight lines and altered colour perception,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After the 1999 eclipse, there were 70 reported cases of visual loss<\/a>, half of which were reported within two days of the eclipse. Moorfields Eye hospital received 1,600 calls to its eclipse helpline and treated 220 people in its emergency department, while Birmingham Eye hospital received about 300 calls and treated 64 people at its special eclipse clinics.<\/p>\n

There have also been concerns about counterfeit glasses, through which it could be dangerous to watch the eclipse.<\/p>\n

Kyla Black, Boots Opticians\u2019 director of optical practice, said: \u201cIt isn\u2019t worth taking the risk with your eyesight. There are several safe ways to enjoy the eclipse such as wearing certified eclipse glasses that meet the international ISO 12312-2 safety standard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A secretive WhatsApp group was pinging with notifications throughout Wednesday, letting its members know where in London the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-811423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}