Solar eclipse on August 21, 2017: research on making a simple viewer

     The eclipse is coming up soon and I want to make an eclipse viewer.  I don't plan on going to the areas for the best viewing, I have work that morning. I live in Fort Worth, Texas and we should see about 75% coverage of the Sun which is good enough for me. On April 8 2024, there will be a solar eclipse passing over us. This year is kind of like good practice for the next one.

     I'm thrifty and I don't want to pay $10 for paper, but certified, solar viewing glasses that were only $1 last year. I wonder how much they are going to go for in the totality zone on that day? I looked up many videos on how to make a pinhole projector and they were pretty much all similar but I like the pictures and basic steps on Livescience.com here. Go there to find the supply list and instructions. Making a solar viewer is practically free, if you have everything around the house. You can get a cardboard box for free from a big box store if you show up and ask for it when they are unloading the merchandise and have many sitting around.

     From watching all the videos, I did pick up a few more tips to add to the basic viewer. A longer box will give you a bigger projected viewing circle, one video mentioned 6 feet was a good length. A box with a lid makes construction easier. Several methods for diminishing the ambient light, which will make the projected image of the Sun brighter, include: painting the box black on the inside, duct taping the seams and all the joins, and adding a tube to the side, instead of a window, but the tube will also make it hard to photograph and share. Using a piece cut from an aluminum soda can to put your pin hole in will make a nice crisp sturdy projection if you sand it smooth, as opposed to tin foil. Just use a needle or small pin to make the pin hole, it should not be big or the projected image will be fuzzy. The simplest cheapest viewer is just using your hands and the pavement like #2 in this article. Using a colander or making multiple pinholes in a pattern will make a very pretty viewer like the picture in #3 here, same article as previous link. Using binoculars, with one side covered, or a monocular mounted on a tripod can give you a beautiful large image good for recording or to see sunspots on normal sunny days.

     My husband will be bringing home a nice long box & paint it black on the inside for me this week so I can put it together next weekend. Hopefully the 21st will be a sunny day.

     For 2024, I hope to get a monocular setup going like in this guy's video or maybe a camera setup to take pictures or just setup another box like the one I'm making this year, mount a Raspberry Pi with the camera module hooked up inside it so it can be completely enclosed and take videos & pictures remotely. I hope someone does a project like that this time so I can see theirs, if not I'll blog it then, hopefully. I also plan to buy some solar viewing film the year or two before so I can make my own glasses/filters.