The Great American Eclipse happened yesterday, and we were blessed with Sun until about 10 minutes after the maximum eclipse point was reached. My glassed did show up, and I was outside staring up at the sun with them on about once every ten minutes for two hours.
Eddie was rather disgruntled about this, because I stopped letting him come out with me on account of both his attempts to eat the potting soil and his attempts to chew on my various pinhole projectors.
I couldn't leave out my pinhole projectors, though! I had to test them out on the actual eclipse, rather than a flashlight. I hauled all three of them outside with me (okay- I had to make a new paper pinhole projector because I threw away the first one), and set to work finding just the right angle and documenting the evidence of my eclipse viewing.
Eddie was rather disgruntled about this, because I stopped letting him come out with me on account of both his attempts to eat the potting soil and his attempts to chew on my various pinhole projectors.
I couldn't leave out my pinhole projectors, though! I had to test them out on the actual eclipse, rather than a flashlight. I hauled all three of them outside with me (okay- I had to make a new paper pinhole projector because I threw away the first one), and set to work finding just the right angle and documenting the evidence of my eclipse viewing.
The Original Best: The Cereal Box
The Cereal Box actually came in on this trial as the weakest of the three. For this trial run, I used the tip of a pen to poke a hole in the foil. What I discovered, though, was that the foil around the hole I poked interfered with the image. At least, I think that's what was happening. I managed to adjust for this, and then looked through the box with my eye and was able to see the eclipse pretty well. The camera wasn't able to capture it well, though. |
The Original Last: Paper
Coming in second, this time, was the simple paper projector. The image was a lot smaller than the images made by the other two projectors, but the image cast was much more clear than I thought it would be based on the test. The edges were very crisp. |
| It's tiny! But it's the most clear of all the projections. |
My New Favorite: The Colander Projector
Yes, perhaps surprisingly, my favorite eclipse projector was the colander. It did indeed cast the image of 84 solar eclipses brightly and clearly onto the wall. Because of the angle, they were not all accurate, but it was nevertheless great fun to see the appearance of 84 tiny images of the sun in various phrases of eclipse all at once. For the best image, you had to look at the ones coming from the bottom of the colander, which were the most accurate. I think I also just enjoyed standing outside holding a colander over the ground to look at its shadow, and promising that I was doing so for science.
A Final Eclipse Conclusion
And there you have it, the true test run of the pinhole projectors. If you can get your hands on a pair of eclipse glasses for 2024, I do highly recommend it, but if you are not able to, any of these projectors will serve you well. Between now and then, while you are eclipsed starved and have only the full sun to project through your pinhole projectors, grab your LED flashlights to put on a miniature light show.
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