Projectors

Projection works well. You can make your own box projector or use a telescope or binoculars. However, don't look through the telescope’s eyepiece or side-mounted finder scope while projecting the Sun's image onto a screen.

Eclipse Glasses

The American Astronomical Society has compiled a list of vendors where you can buy safe eclipse glasses. Make sure you carefully read the instructions that come with the glasses.

NASA also recommends welder's glasses rated 14 or higher. These can be found at your local welding supply store. Keep in mind that welder glass grading may be different in different countries.

When to Use Eclipse Glasses

Eclipse glasses must be used whenever the disk of the Sun itself can be seen. This means:

• All the time during a partial eclipse
• All the time during an annular eclipse—this includes the brief moments of annularity, when the Sun forms a dazzling ‘ring of fire’ around the Moon
• During the partial phases of a total eclipse

In the brief moments of totality during a total solar eclipse, the Sun is completely covered, and the ghostly solar corona becomes visible around the Moon.

For these few moments, eclipse viewers can be safely removed. (In fact, if you don’t take off your eye protection, you won’t be able to see the solar corona.)

Four rules for using eclipse glasses

Solar Filters

You can use special solar filters to watch the Sun during a solar eclipse, but use the proper type of solar filter that is designed for eclipses. Check that filters do not crack under the Sun’s magnified and focused intensity. Solar filters must be treated with care, or they can quickly become damaged and unsafe to use.

How to take pictures of a solar eclipse

Solar filters should never be used with optical devices such as telescopes and binoculars, unless it is a specialist solar filter designed for use with that particular device. If you are uncertain about whether a filter is safe, do not use it. Avoid all risks.

Topics: Astronomy, Eclipses, Sun