> people think each person needs a pair, not aware that you're not going to stare at the thing the whole time, and sharing is possible
We had like 60 seconds of totality, sharing the glasses with my wife would mean we get 30 seconds each. Of course both of us want double the viewing time and the glasses are a couple of euros.
The period of totality is the only phase when you do not need to use protective eyewear. You would be able to safely look directly at the eclipsed Sun, as long as your timing is precise.
https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety
It's during the partial/annular/penumbral phases when you use the protective eyewear, and those are lasting a couple of hours on each side.
But even protected viewing should be curtailed to a couple of minutes at a time.
"Let me potentially permanently damage my eyes to save 20 bucks".
How are you potentially damaging your eyes? If it’s totality looking through them is a waste of time (you won’t see anything) and outside that range you have hours to pass them around. The sharing part has no impact.
100% totality means there is nothing to damage your eyes. I stood exactly on the line a few years ago and we had over a minute to look at it without glasses. Don't be 2 seconds early or late putting the glasses on though. I stopped looking many seconds early to ensure I wasn't staring up unprotected when the sun started showing again. There was an app that talked through the stages with exact timings and a countdown clock which worked perfectly.
In Berlin for example all shops ran out of eclipse viewing glasses, people were selling them on eBay & co. at 15 -35 euros a pair…
In Barcelona, they costed a bit less that 2 euros a pair at a pharmacy the day before the eclipse.
I hope that they were safe and certified. There is probably much incentive to sell fakes.
https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/how-to-tell-if-viewers-ar...
I've found that a lot of vendors sell them in large quantity packs, for educators and institutional use. And it is not the sort of thing to find on the racks of stores in the off-seasons. I was unprepared for the last eclipse over the United States. Perhaps in the next two decades, I can score a pair of safety glasses.