There was an eclipse yesterday, so obviously I headed out to see it. As far as British solar eclipses go, this one was going to be a treat. with 92% coverage in London, the best since 1999, and won't be matched until 2081. Therefore, I kinda had to go see it.
There was one issue, though - I didn't have the special solar eclipse glasses. I wanted to get some online, but when I looked some up, most of them were bloody expensive, and the cheap ones were going to arrive after Wednesday. I did think about going to an astronomy shop, maybe even the Science Museum, but it seemed like they were all sold out by then anyways. I gave up on going to see the eclipse at this point, after all I couldn't exactly stare into the Sun, could I?
At least, that's what I told myself until about 2pm yesterday. I'd read a BBC article on ways to view the eclipse, and they all seemed pretty lame to me - using a colander or making a pinhole viewer, for example. They just weren't as cool as the real deal, which let's not forget won't be this good across Europe until 2081 at the earliest. However, the eclipse continued playing on my mind, so I decided to go ahead and make a pinhole viewer.
It's surprisingly easy to make one, all you need is a cardboard box, some foil and some scissors. I had the box and scissors, in hindsight it would have been easier with a knife, but the foil was a bit tricky. Every tutorial I saw online mentioned aluminium foil, which I didn't have at the time, but I read somewhere else that using a can would work instead. I took a Red Bull from the fridge and used that instead of buying an entire roll of foil.
All you need to do is cut out a square hole in your box, with a larger one right next to it. The small hole is the eyepiece, that's what you'd use to indirectly view the Sun. You then cover the larger hole with a slice of the can, before pricking the middle of the slice with a pin. That leaves a tiny hole where sunlight will enter the box, before being reflected on the other side where you can view it. I also created a makeshift lid to block any other light out, but I don't think this is particularly necessary.
I tested it out in my garden, and it actually turned out alright. The Sun was visible, albeit far smaller than I'd anticipated. That makes sense, I'm not sure why I expected it to be larger:
My only worry was that, with the Sun already being this small, I doubted I'd get to see an eclipse in the viewer. I couldn't do much about that, though, so I headed off to a nearby park in time for the eclipse at 7pm. In good news, the sky was mostly clear, so I'd probably get some sun at least. I stood with my back against the Sun, looking down awkwardly into my cardboard box, and waited.
There were far more people in the park than I had expected - clearly, loads of people were looking forward to the eclipse. Never thought it would generate that much hype. I spent about half an hour sitting on the field, watching the sky slowly darken into a greyish-blue, and looking down my pinhole viewer. The good thing was that it actually worked, even if the Sun itself wasn't all that sharp. I took a few photos as well, all of which have a satisfying chunk bitten out of the Sun's side:
And yes, you can probably barely see the Sun in these pictures. Let me blow up one for you:
This is literally a once in a generation event, and I'm so lucky to be able to have witnessed it yesterday. Here's to 2081, then, which I think might even be a total eclipse! In the meantime, we've got several partial solar and lunar eclipses to enjoy, including a total lunar eclipse as soon as New Year's Eve in 2028.
I hope you enjoyed your solar eclipse - how did you see it? With or without glasses? Did your photos turn out well?
Good idea! It was really amazing to see it!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! Thanks for sharing
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