We didn’t get a full eclipse here in SoCal, but I knew that it would at least be unobstructed. Having heard that the availability of viewing glasses was in short supply out here I decided to rig up something to indirectly view it. My first experiments with a long cardboard tube and the “pinhole technique” only produced a small image, so I decided to try to magnify it. My inexpensive pair of binoculars seemed like the best bet.
1. I rigged up the binoculars to be able to use them with a tripod.
2. A piece of white foam board did the trick as a projection screen.
3. A large piece of corrugate blocked most of the light so that the only thing projecting on the screen was the image.
It was fun to dial in the sharpness of the image on the screen with the focus mechanism on the binoculars. Fortunately we had this because at that magnification the image was out of focus quickly if either the tripod/binoculars or the screen moved around a bit, which was the case due to the wind.
All of the visitors to the park enjoyed the setup as did Nellie our Corgi, since she thought the image was just another flashlight beam to chase.
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