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Watch the eclipse safely with pinhole projection

A small hole cut in a piece of paper or card will clearly and safely let you watch the eclipse. How? Let the Sun shine through the hole onto a piece of white paper or card held some distance away. One might think that the projected light of the Sun will have the shape of the hole, but this is only true if the hole is close to the projection surface. The pictures below show this.

Pinhole projection is an easy way for individuals to watch the eclipse. Most people have some paper, card or cardboard available, so it costs nothing.

Make sure that you stand with your back to the Sun. Do not let anyone look through the pinhole - only use it to project an image of the Sun as shown.

The simplest Pinhole Projector is your hand

hand projection
Click on the picture for a larger version
Make a small gap between your thumb and forefinger and let the Sun shine through it on onto a flat, light-coloured surface. The sunlight passing through the gap will show the shape of the Sun - here the Sun is not eclipsed, and it looks circular.

Make your own Personal Pinhole Projector

personal projector
Click on the picture for the full image.
Here is a Personal Pinhole Projector in action.

If you look closely,

Maybe we need to see what shape and size pinhole is needed to make a good image of the Sun.

Testing Pinhole Projection

We made a test card with round holes and with triangular holes of different sizes, and held it a different distances from our projection screen.

pinhole projection
Click on the picture for the full image.
Card with round and triangular holes of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm diameter held 30 cm from a white card.
Projected sunlight has the shape of the holes.

pinhole projection
Click on the picture for the full image.
Card with round and triangular holes of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm diameter held 1 metre from a white card.
Projected sunlight through larger triangular holes is now halfway between the shape of the holes and the round shape of the Sun. The smaller triangular holes are giving round images.

pinhole projection
Click on the picture for the full image.
Card with round and triangular holes of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm diameter held 2 metres from a white card.
Projected sunlight thorugh the large triangular holes now shows the round shape of the Sun, not the shapes of the holes.

Only use the pinhole projector as shown. Do not look through the hole at Sun, as you may damage your eyes.

Will a Pinhole show the shape of the partly eclipsed Sun?

lamp

The simplest and cheapest method of observing an eclipse of the Sun is by pinhole projection. How does this work? The rays of light from the light source must travel in straight lines through the pinhole. This results in a reversed image of the light source being seen where the light of the image falls.

This is easily shown with a clear incandescent light bulb, as found in a normal household lamp. The filament in the these bulbs is held by several loops of wire so as to form an arc made of several linear segments. This looks rather like the shape of the partly eclipsed Sun.

To demonstrate pinhole projection we then need:

We find that shape of the holes has no effect on the image of the filament seen projected on the screen, if the paper is held far from the screen. However, bigger holes will make brighter but more blurred images of the filament.

Make a BIG pinhole projector

You could make a large pinhole projector that has your name or that of your organisation, or where you plan to be for the eclipse:

name projection
Click on the picture for the full image.
The place and time of the last total solar eclipse is well recorded here.

Enjoy the eclipse from under a tree

Natural pinhole projection of the Sun occurs with the light passing between the leaves of trees, in another picture taken in Lusaka during the last solar eclipse:

name projection
Click on the picture for the full image.
Africa in midsummer is hot! Relaxing under a tree may be the answer.


www.hartrao.ac.za/other/eclipse2002/pinhole.html
Last updated 2002/11/13 by mike@hartrao.ac.za
. since 2002/10/14