I have buit a similar projector for the venus transit in 2004. I used a telescope on a tripod and was able to get a projected image of about 25 cm diameter (should be about 10 inch). It's a really great was to follow such a event. And as for the eclipse: I live in the total zone of the eclipse of 1999 , and i was thinking to make some photos, too, but then i decided, no, it's something i see probably once in a lifetime, and i decided to just enjoy the expierience. Such a projector can be nice before and after the total phase, but today again, i would just enjoy the few minutes of the total phase just with the glasses.

A really cool photo you can take is from the light rays you usually see under a tree, normally they are circular but during an eclipse they all look like the eclipsed sun, you can try finding a nice tree with many even circles and a nice background like grass or leaves.

Very cool idea! I'm heading up to Salem for the eclipse.

Lynn, enjoy the Eclipse! I'll miss it in totality but I'll enjoy it in spirit.

That's so cool. My twin brother and I spontaneously decided to drive to Oregon last minute. I think we're stopping by your town. Leaving Sacramento CA now.

You could add a GoPro to the underside of the middle board, that focuses on the white paper the sun image is on, to record the event.

Omg, you're an Oregonian! Gresham myself. I plan to be watching the eclipse after hiking into Jefferson Park, so it'll be a pin-hole projector and cheap-o "eclipse glasses" for me. Love this channel.

Great video Linn. I don't know if I'm going to be watching the eclipse or not. A lot of it depends on what I'm doing that day. Have a great time watching it. Thanks for sharing

I always enjoy your videos but this one was really great really informing I remember my grandma telling about the eclipse when she was young this is something to remember thanks so much for all the great work you do

I'm with you. I was going to try and photograph it or video the eclipse. I then realized I'd rather just enjoy my family since we won't see this again in my lifetime. I'm in North Georgia, so we will see 99-100%.

Great. Wish I had thought as deeply two weeks ago. Good job.

Envious of you guys down in Oregon. I'm going to miss the eclipse myself, I'm up near Tacoma, WA. HAVE FUN!!! :)

Welding mask worked great for when we had one in the UK

That's a fantastic creative project!

Handy tip! I hope all is well!

I'm planning a similar project this weekend using the objective lens and Barlow lens from my telescope. The design is pretty identical to yours, but I'm making the lens adjustable so that I can focus. Have fun with it!

Very cool build. Thank you!

l will be driving up from Napa. l was sad that l was going to miss your meetup maybe you could do another one on the 20th or 21st. Another great video thank you.

Great idea there, its also great for viewing sun spots as well. But try to get a few photos of it, if not you mite be kicking yourself later. Yes a lot of people will be taking photos, but you mite get that 1 in a million shot....have a great weekend....

I agree that it's best to put aside the camera and focus on simply experiencing the event.

Great ideas and creativity. Hope you'll be able to share with us. Eric

Great Idea.

Would be great if you could live stream. I tried to book an RV site over a year ago, no luck. So it would be nice to see from your view. Thanks for sharing

I think I'll try building an eclipse viewer, even though the eclipse will be very partial where I live (south tip of Texas, at 26 degrees north latitude).

Enjoyed watching you. When you got to about 5:15 I could really relate. Have a great day

🎯Beautiful video👍 I'm trying right now to find a good idea 📐for the coming Mercury transit, your project help me a lot. I'm French Canadian from Montreal and I salute you with double 👍👍

Really nice! With all that you can not only see the eclipse, but also see sunspots. :)

I'm near Seattle. We are projected to have 80% coverage up here. Thinking of just making a cardboard box in to a pinhole camera. :)

Just a heads up about image sizes - don't forget that during totality the corona of the sun will be visible and it's about 3 and a bit times the diameter of the "normal" sun, so although you can look directly at it during this time, if you're wanting to use your projector you'll need to make sure your screen (aka. the bit of paper) is big enough. Other than that, I hope you get a good clear day and let us know what Darwin makes of it all :-)

oh cool I had no idea you were in Corvallis. Im actually going to OSU this fall.

Really like the monster chess table !;-)Thankyou

Really great stuff here. I tweeted this out so others can check it out and try your ideas. I actually have an old 600mm lens from a very odd camera setup that may work for something like this. I may have to give it a try. Thanks for the tips and ideas. Keep up the great videos. BTW, Hope everything is progressing smooth and healthy for you and the new little one you are expecting! Congratulations on that. Happy Friday!!!

Suggestion for the camera filter: sandwich the filter material between a step-up ring and a larger-sized uv filter. (I'm using a 52-77mm step-up and a 77mm uv filter) - this should let the material remain undistorted while providing full coverage.

Welding filters work also. So if you have a welding helmet, goggles, ir just go buy a replacement lens that works.

how exciting for you watching a full eclipse and having a baby the same year

A fellow Pentax user I see. Good to meet you.

Good !!

Perhaps with a refractor telescope it is not an issue, but once I did build a sun projector out of my Newtonian telescope and the heat build-up was enough to eventually melt the eyepiece down. Have fun!

Hi 👋 Lynn great video

We always used a cardboard box with a pinhole and a piece of paper

Your shed is looking good. What's that grey/silver part on the bottom?

Just be aware that using a scope or binoculars unfiltered with the sun could very well ruin it. The primary objective will basically concentrate all of the light from the large end to a small area on the eyepiece and heat it up. At minimum, it will probably ruin any coatings on the lease and might even cause it to crack the eyepiece, especially if you use it for the entire time leading up to totality. It is not much different than using a magnifying lens to burn something.

Greetings from Peru

Great idea :) I live in the Totality Zone too - lucky us !!!

Good thing the shed is labeld "shed". "Hunny, which one of your contraptions in the garden is the shed?" "The one labeld 'shed'... dumbass"

I don’t remember traffic being an issue where we were back in 2017… Do you recall issues with crowds in your area?

If you could, please post at least the specs of the spotting scope - I liked the general size of the projector apparatus and the resulting image, and I'd love to be able to use something with a better focus mechanism than most binocs. Thanks! Those discussing heat build up - for the Venus transit and this last total solar eclipse, I used a pair of decent binoculars. I've found that as long as you are able to project through the desired optical path, you don't appear to be able to damage the optics themselves. The problem, however, is if you step away, and the sun moves out of alignment and the objective starts concentrating a lot of solar energy onto internal portions of the binoculars that aren't generally part of the optical path. If that happens, things start to heat up enough to cause damage. I melted an internal baffle and some non-metallic inner coating material. But, that's about it, and the optics were fine for the eclipse (the drop in solar energy helped too, I'm sure). So, if you want to use a lensed solar projector, just keep the objective lens cap handy and cap it when you walk away. Better yet, mount it onto something that tracks the rotation of the earth and keep the image centered as best you can. Also, try to keep the entire solar disk viewable within your projection screen - if you zoom in such that the image is cropped by internal portions of the eyepiece, then you may get into heating problems.

Looks over at the video of an eclipse viewer made out of a shoe box. ( O.O) Yeah....Ill go with that one.

I love you.

You're so cool! We should totally be friends.

You are so smart!

Good luck on the internet...I'll be one of the hordes of people crippling it (my daughter is going to OSU, so we settled on Corvallis for eclipse viewing). I'm going wide angle with the camera to try to take a picture of all the stars out with the sun hiding behind the moon. Here's hoping for clear weather...

Beautiful lady...

What if there are animals watching the eclipse... LIKE DOGS AND CATS AND PETS!! NOOOOOO

U r very gorgeous

We in India don't let our wife to do any work during eclipse but I wish u a healthy baby I like your work T Q