Wyoming tourism officials are urging people to double check their special glasses for Monday's solar eclipse after the Wyoming Department of Transportation purchased what turned out to be phony eclipse glasses for WYDOT employees.

Chris Mickey, with Governor Matt Mead's office, says about 1000 pairs of the bogus glasses were purchased by the state over the internet for WYDOT to give to their employees.

But officials soon began hearing rumors that the glasses were not authentic, and when they checked the manufacturer of the glasses against a list of companies known to make the legitimate eclipse glasses they found the glasses that had been purchased were phonies.

That was even though the bogus glasses included the ISO icon with the reference number 12312-2 that is used to identify legitimate eclipse glasses.

Mickey says officials believe they have tracked down all of the bogus glasses purchased for WYDOT, but he says the incident should remind people to check any eclipse glasses they may have purchased against a list of known makers of genuine eclipse glasses.

You can check your glasses against a list of known legitimate eclipse glass makers compiled by the American Astronomical Society or the Wyoming Department of Tourism.  Wyoming tourism officials say they have no idea how many people may visit Wyoming for Monday's eclipse.

Some estimates have ranged as high as 600,000 people, which would represent a huge influx of people in a state that has a population of only about 585,000.

Mickey cited an estimate of 40,000 people expected to visit Casper alone. That city is one of the areas of the state that will allow people to see a total solar eclipse on Monday.

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