Our (Partial) Solar Eclipse

You might have heard about the solar eclipse that swept the country on Monday. We weren’t prepared with eclipse glasses, but we caught Jonas heading out with this contraption:


That’s just two pairs of regular sunglasses doubled up, so after a stern talk about eye safety, we built a viewer to take outside. Kirk used an old cardboard tube to make a pinhole projector:


The tube is 4 feet long and 3.5 inches in diameter — it was leftover from a new carpet we had delivered earlier in the summer, and we were glad to have it still lying around. The longer the tube, the bigger the image. 

All he’d die was cover one end with foil tape and poke a small hole in it. The bottom is covered with white paper to make a screen. He cut a viewing window near the bottom, and this is what you see:


This was at the beginning of the eclipse. The rest of the photos below are in order as it changed. At its height, we were at about 62-63 percent in shadow.






It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and we’re definitely on board for another partial one here in 2020 and a total eclipse in New England in 2024. 

Hopefully we’ll be able to get our hands on some glasses by then. 

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