Amber Fritsch, OD, who owns Precision Eye Care in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee—near Nashville—with her husband, Ryan Fritsch, OD, is excited for those communities that will be in the path of totality for the solar eclipse on April 8. Her practice went through it in 2017, but this year, the eclipse will be partial in this region.
So she’s happy to offer some advice for those who are going through it for the first.
Buy reputable solar eclipse glasses
“We learned a big lesson in 2017 that not all eclipse glasses were made equally. There were counterfeit glasses being sold, even through reputable sources,” she says. She ordered the glasses for her practice through America Paper Optics again this year.
Be prepared for people to become frantic
“Even with all the media and eye care providers saying that it wasn’t safe to look at the sun, as the day of the eclipse came closer, there were people who were just realizing that they could not use their regular sunglasses. People were seriously frantic in the last days,” says Dr. Fritsch, noting she reordered stock about five times.
|
|
|
Precision Eye Care’s “regular” logo – and the special version the practice create for the eclipse. All photos courtesy of Dr. Amber Fritsch.
Buy extras
She was able to give a supply of solar eclipse glasses to the local police department. The department distributed them to employees, and officers who were on hand at the events had them to give out or share with people who didn’t have the appropriate glasses. “We got a shout-out from the department for doing that,” she recalls.
Have fun with the marketing
The practice created its own social media splash by using an image of the moon eclipsing the round Precision Eye Care logo. At its tent in the local park that day, the staff wore t-shirts that said, “I’ve been mooned.”
 |
 |
The practice marked the occasion of the moon blocking out the sun with t-shirts that announced they had been “mooned.”
Recycle the glasses
Although there won’t be total solar eclipse in the contiguous U.S. for another two decades, there are other places in the world that will experience them. “We received an email from an organization that was recycling them and sending them to children in countries that would be experiencing a solar eclipse,” she says.
Astronomers Without Borders has information on its website about collecting and recycling solar eclipse glasses.
Share Your Experiences
See other stories about the solar eclipse here – and share your own stories and photos from 2017 or 2024 by emailing us.
