Q&A: How to view the Solar eclipse Sunday?

Question by Bradley Wright: How to view the Solar eclipse Sunday?
I want to use the Cardboard and a pen hole trick.. I just want to know how big of a piece of cardboard I would need to do this trick.

From what I have heard, you can view Solar eclipses with just two pieces of cardboard by making a pen hole inside one and face your back to the sun. Hold the piece with the hole up to the sun and make the light shine through to hit another piece of cardboard.

I would just like to know the dimensions of what I should make the cardboard and pin hole, so that I can clearly see this eclipse.


Best answer:
Answer by cosmoThe dimensions are not critical.

The important thing is that the size of the pinhole, seen from the distance of the screen, is much smaller than the Sun.

It helps to have the "screen" be in deep shadow, so a more sophisticated version is to get a cardboard box (from the supermarket, for example). Cut a fairly big hole (say 1 inch diameter) in one end, tape a piece of aluminum foil over that, and make the pinhole in the foil. That way, it's a nice clean pinhole with sharp edges. Then line the opposite side of the box inside with white paper, to act as a screen. The box will help to keep the "screen" in shadow.

You can test it out before the eclipse, by using it on the Sun. If you get a nice round spot on the "screen", it should work fine.

If the pinhole is small enough, and the shadow on the screen dark enough, you might be able to see big sunspots.

A smaller pinhole will make a better image, but it will also be a dimmer image.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!







How to make a shoe-box viewer to safely view the solar eclipse. I added black duct tape to all the taped edges of the box to block any stray light, and black tape next to the eye-hole to reduce the glare to your eye from the Sun shining on the outside of the white box.

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