Who Turned Out the Lights? Preparing for the Total Eclipse 2024!
By Lindsay VanGeem, STEAM Instructor
This is an exciting year for solar activity as we prepare for the world’s longest land-based total solar eclipse in over a decade! The path of the eclipse in North America will cross parts of Mexico, 15 U.S. States, and five provinces in Canada, creating a beautiful spectacle that will dazzle everyone who takes time to, safely, look up to the sky!
A solar eclipse is a rare, celestial event that occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. This causes the moon to create a huge shadow that blankets part of Earth because the sun’s light is either partially or completely blocked from view. If you are in the regions where the moon will completely block the face of the sun, you are in the area known as, the path of totality. The sky will darken giving the appearance of dusk, or if conditions and your location are perfect, the appearance of night!
If you live in the United States and miss out on this year’s eclipse, you will have to wait until the next total solar eclipse to be visible in the lower 48 states, which won’t be happening until August 23rd, 2044. To ensure you don’t miss out this year, you can make your own solar eclipse viewer out of materials you can find around your home!
DIY Eclipse Pinhole Projector
How it Works!
For viewing the eclipse, a pinhole projector is a device that creates a light projection of the sun and the moon’s shadow onto the inside of the box through a focused beam of light. The tiny hole that the light will shine through acts as a small camera lens. The light enters through the small hole, it gets focused and projected to the other side of the box so that you can see the image!
Materials
- Thin cardboard box (like a cereal box)
- Masking or clear tape
- Scissors
- Permanent marker
- Foil
- Toothpick
- Construction paper, stickers, markers (Optional)
Steps
- Using a permanent marker, draw 2 small squares, about 1-2 inches in size, on one end of the box. One square should be on the top left-side of the box, the other square should be on the right-side of the box top.
- Cut out both marked squares on your box top.
- Next, cut a piece of foil that will be large enough to cover one of the square holes that you previously cut out and tape the foil over the top.
- After you secure the foil over one of your squares, use the toothpick to poke one small hole for the sun to shine through.
- Decorate the outside of your box to help celebrate the eclipse!
How to use your viewer:
To use your pinhole viewer to observe the eclipse, stand with your back to the sun and hold up your pinhole viewer so that it catches the sun’s light. During the partial phases of the solar eclipse, you should see a projected image of a crescent sun inside your box. During the height of the eclipse you might be lucky enough to see the annularity, or the maximum phase of the eclipse when the moon’s entire disk is silhouetted!
SAFETY NOTE
It is not safe to look directly at the sun without proper protection. Viewing the sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or telescopes without the proper filters and eye protection will cause severe eye injury.
