There’s one month to go before a full solar eclipse comes through New Hampshire and people are getting excited. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center has the numbers to prove it.

The science museum alongside NHTI put in an order for 500 pairs of eclipse glasses, which are needed to look safely at the sun, but they sold out. So it put in another order. Those sold out, too. So the museum put in an order for 1,500 pairs. They’re selling fast as you can tell from the three dozen pairs ordered in advance piled up behind the counter of the museum store.

Among those buying them Wednesday was Bonnie Williams of Concord with her daughter, Lily, 6. A second-grade teacher at Concord Christian Academy, she’ll use the glasses at home for her children – the school is having a half-day April 8 so kids can watch with their family – as well as showing them in class while teaching about safe ways to watch the eclipse.

“Safety is important. We are emphasizing safety,” she said. Having the glasses for children to see and hold gets the message home better than a lecture and videos. “First-hand experience is important. It’s a great learning tool.”

Safety is important because looking at the sun through wear protection can permanently damage your eyes. Unfortunately, the market has been flooded with imitation eclipse glasses to the point that the American Astronomical Society urges people not to buy glasses online but only to buy them through a reputable dealer, such as the Discovery Center.

The society said in a press release that it’s no longer enough to look for a label indicating that the product meets the ISO 12312-2 international standard for blocking the sun’s ultraviolet, infrared and visible light because rip-off sites are faking that, too. “Some sellers are even displaying fake test results on their websites to support their bogus claim of compliance with the ISO safety standard,” the society said in a press release.

On Wednesday, Charlie Russell of Concord and his wife, Jane, were getting pairs at the Discovery Center. They plan to head up to northern Vermont, which will see a full eclipse.

He remembers the 1959 solar eclipse when his parents took him to Nahant Beach, near their home in Lynn, Mass., to watch an event just barely visible from the shore of New England. “The beach was full. People, cars, school buses,” he said. That’s part of the reason they’re going to Vermont – hoping to get on the back roads and avoid crowds.

Concord will just miss seeing the full eclipse on April 8. The moon will cover about 96% of the sun here at peak at 3:30 p.m. You’ll have to go up to Littleton or further north to see 100% coverage.

North Country officials are bracing for an onslaught of visitors on April 8, which is a Monday. Virtually all hotels, short-term rentals and campsites have been booked for months and the state is telling people who drive up for a viewing to make sure they have plenty of gas in their car, because the few service stations up there might run out.

Although Concord won’t get the full effect of the eclipse, which happens when the moon gets between us and the sun, it will still be more impressive than the last time we came close to a solar eclipse. That 2017 eclipse saw about two-thirds of the sun covered here and even that was impressive.

The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center is holding an “eclipse party” from noon to 5 p.m. on April 8. The eclipse will begin around 2:15 p.m. and end about 4:30.

For more information about the eclipse and events happening in New Hampshire, check the state portal NHSolarEclipse.com