Simple D.I.Y Project to Safely Watch the Solar Eclipse

Come August 21st people all over the world will be watching for the Solar Eclipse. Some will see a full eclipse while other will see a partial one, but either way this can be very dangerous.

Joel Schuman, M.D., chair of the department of ophthalmology at NYU Langone Health explains that the lens of your eye concentrates the energy from the light to your retina. If you look at direct sunlight for even a few seconds this sheer amount of light can burn your retina.

In the event your retina is damaged you can permanently lose or damage the part of the eye that you use for vision in the sharpest part of your visual field for reading, driving etc.

The problem is during an eclipse many people think that they are safe because the sun is being blocked, but even looking for a few seconds at an eclipse has been known to damage peoples eyes. The most important thing to remember is the need to protect your eyes.

Their are two ways to view an Eclipse, Directly or Indirectly.

Directly: One simple way to view the eclipse directly is by wearing "eclipse glasses" . Just be careful that you buy them from a trusted company or website since many counterfeit ones may be on the market. The  The American Astronomical Society has a list of approved vendors to choose from CLICK HERE

Indirectly:    The simplest way to do this is make a pinhole camera. Here is a list of directions from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

To start you will need 2 pieces of Card Stock, Aluminum Foil, Tape, Pin or Paper Clip.

1. Cut a square hole in the middle of one of your pieces of card stock
2. Tape aluminum foil over the hole
3. Poke a hole in the foil
4. Place your other piece of cardstock on the ground and hold up the piece of cardstock with foil facing up.Stand with the sun behind you and the image will be displayed on the card stock below. The farther you hold the card stock with foil away from the one on the ground the bigger the image will become.

Click Here to see pictures on how to make the pinhole camera.