How to Super-Size the Eclipse

How to Super-Size the Eclipse - Sun Funnel

Рет қаралды 136,544

7 жыл бұрын

If you've got a telescope, give the crowd a show next week. Make the eclipse bigger! Eclipse glasses are okay, but the sun is only as big as your thumbnail at arms length. That's not very big. I need something to impress some kindergartners! Hopefully the sun funnel can do it.
Plans: eclipse2017.nasa.gov/make-sun...
Watch this video and the entire Practical Engineering catalog ad-free on Nebula: go.nebula.tv/practical-engine...
-Patreon: / practicalengineering
-Website: practical.engineering
Marxist Arrow by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
Source: • Marxist Arrow - Twin M...
Tonic and Energy by Elexive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Пікірлер: 181

@Megalon11235 7 жыл бұрын

You are living the life that people actually want to become engineers for: changing lives, letting people see something from another perspective (in this case, literally) and inspiring the next generation. Everytime I come to your channel to see a new video, I never leave disappointed or uninterested.

@BillySugger1965 7 жыл бұрын

Great job Grady. To improve image contrast you can spray the inside of your funnel matt black. This reduces internal reflection of light scattered back from the projection screen being reflected around the tube and lightening up the darker areas of the projected image. Should make sun spots stand out much more clearly.

@FlyingJetpack1 7 жыл бұрын

Wow, the quality of the projection is so good that you can easily identify the sun spots :D

@mattparker7932 7 жыл бұрын

Like you, I will also be SLIGHTLY out of the path of totality. We'll only be seeing 99.9% of the eclipse. I will also be at the elementary school where I teach science. I can't just abandon 400 kids to get a better view. Our school has a device called a SunSpotter which works a lot like what you've built. When you get it lined up, it projects a larger and dimmer image of the sun onto a white stage that is part of the device. I've used it over the years to show kids sunspots and to demonstrate the slow rotation of the Earth (as the sun visably moves over the plate), but it'll be an interesting and safe way for us to view our (almost) total eclipse. Meanwhile, I'm already making plans to be in totality when the April, 2024 eclipse crosses the US. I'm not going to miss that one!

@MikeV8652 2 жыл бұрын

I drove from SW Texas to Nebraska to see that one in 2017, but I can watch the 2024 eclipse from my own home, which will be in the center of totality! Just six months earlier, we've got an annular eclipse with the path of annularity about an hour's drive away. Exciting times!

@PracticalEngineeringChannel 7 жыл бұрын

First! Want a Practical Engineering t-shirt? They're soooo soft! practical.engineering/shop

@Mewyabby 7 жыл бұрын

Can you demonstrate it's softness or utilize it in a project?

@emmettkogan8006 7 жыл бұрын

Practical Engineering I love San Antonio, but while you are there you need to get Rudy's Barbeque it's over on sea world's side of town and I found it a couple years ago when I visited San Antonio.

@gabewrsewell 7 жыл бұрын

That's so funny, I happened to try this for my own for the first time just this afternoon! It worked great and I saw those exact sunspots as are in the video

@danwilliams4877 3 жыл бұрын

Really do enjoy your videos mate. Thanks for sharing your knowledge in such a clear and engaging way.

@fep_ptcp883 7 жыл бұрын

Awesome solution! Best regards from São Paulo, Brasil

@lindsaythomas4093 7 жыл бұрын

Love learning with you guys!!!

@mariusloubeeka5810 7 жыл бұрын

At the last eclipse I built myself a camera obscura from our office pantry because a) I was at work, b) I don't have neither a telescope nor c) those special sun glasses (I forgot where I put them after the eclipse of 1999). I covered the whole window with paper to get it dark inside and punched a hole with a pin in it. I just had to hold a screen into the light beam. But you need at least card board to get it really dark. Otherwise the tiny amount of light getting through the pin hole does not make a clear picture. If the hole is too big the picture is blurry (out of focus).

@Nurutomo 3 жыл бұрын

Like a camera without lens and sensor

@talkinmonkey 7 жыл бұрын

just made one! it's amazing! one note, though, we found it was much easier to use a rubber band to hold the screen on the end of the funnel than a hose clamp (we used shower curtain liner as the screen material). anyway, what a cool project! thanks!

@RobertSzasz 7 жыл бұрын

Well, you shot this recently. I recognize that sunspot as being a total PITA to get into perfect focus with my old camera.

@AmRadPodcast 7 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the cool video Grady. I just tossed out my aging telescope, now I'm kicking myself!!!

@Gabbyreel 7 жыл бұрын

It so cool how you can even see the sun spots!

@redcurated4302 7 жыл бұрын

I love your videos, please make more, i always learn something cool.Could you do a video about radio signals, and how they work.

@redcurated4302 7 жыл бұрын

Like why does antenna length matter? why are radio masts so high? and whats actually on a radio mast? How many watts does a radio tower use to power its transmitter. are there different types?

@ShneekeyTheLost 6 жыл бұрын

My son and I set up a pinhole camera affixed at a specific height over our backyard picnic table, and aimed to shine down at a paper tablet. During the actual event, every five minutes, he documented the time and the shape the pinhole camera cast upon the page. Not only did we effectively document the progression of the eclipse itself, but also the path of the light's trajectory as the earth rotated. We turned the resulting documentation into a flip-book. Quite an entertaining afternoon with the kiddo.

@PracticalEngineeringChannel 6 жыл бұрын

Very cool!

@ultrafox2773 7 жыл бұрын

Love the channel!!!

@sonotthere 7 жыл бұрын

you should really paint the inside of the cone black. to prevent the internal back reflection from the screen that then saturates the borders of the screen. painting it black will make it so you can see more details that back reflection previously prevented up from showing

@AirborneSurfer 6 жыл бұрын

Cool build!

@johnslaughter5475 2 жыл бұрын

We certainly did. We were in the path of totality in Northern Idaho. The weather was beautiful. We got our eclipse glasses, lawn chairs, drinks, and then sat back and enjoyed the show. Too bad these don't happen more often.

@jacob-jamescompton5152 6 жыл бұрын

It is so cool you're in San Antonio!

@aleksandersuur9475 5 жыл бұрын

Hey, thanks for the inspiration, I managed to gobble together a similar contraption thanks to that and actually get a fuzzy phone picture of a sunspot. Oh, by the way, it's a murder to keep the damn contraption steady without a tripod.

@dragoncurveenthusiast 7 жыл бұрын

It's possible to use an overhead projector in reverse and project a very nice (small, but sharp) image onto the surface where the plastic slides usually are. Colleagues of mine did that at our research institute for a partial solar eclipse on the 20th of March 2015 (Europe). It wasn't for research purposes, we aren't astronomers. It was just there for everybody to see, which was cool!

@MikeV8652 2 жыл бұрын

Finally, a use for the obsolete overhead projectors that will probably sit collecting dust in classrooms for the next century!

@devinpohl5532 7 жыл бұрын

I live in the path of totally, in the single best place to be (according to multiple news sources but still). It would be so great to see if I WASN'T LEAVING FOR COLLEGE THE DAY BEFORE!

@jimmyshrimbe9361 5 жыл бұрын

Awesome stuff

@jreed1701d 7 жыл бұрын

I was thinking about this question already having a mathematical answer, but did you notice any major correlation between the amount of time that had passed and how much you had to move your telescope to track it? For instance, X minutes elapsed time equated to re-position your telescope Y degrees? I'd be curious to see what the full mathematical answer is taking into account the orbits and rotation of the earth.

@Pilot_Pirx 7 жыл бұрын

I think you might want to experiment with diffrent materials for the screen. The current one has that slight texture that gets in the way of the projection just a little bit.

@muchmore344 7 жыл бұрын

painting the inside of the cone black would improve the contrast. in particular the contrast of sun spots.

@PacoOtaktay 6 жыл бұрын

Great video. :) I wish I had seen it sooner. :)

@Migueldeservantes 7 жыл бұрын

I plan to use my welding helmet it is a shade 13... I'm positive that it will do better than perfect!!

@sleepib 7 жыл бұрын

I think you should incorporate a mirror to flip the projection ~90°. In San Antonio the sun is going to be at 70° elevation at max obscuration, so you'll basically be lying underneath the telescope with the current arrangement.

@PracticalEngineeringChannel 7 жыл бұрын

+sleepib I have a star diagonal ready :)

@reprosser 7 жыл бұрын

Can you get similar (smaller projection) without a telescope. Maybe with a pin hole at the eye piece end?

@Holobrine 7 жыл бұрын

rep Well if you make the funnel shorter you can decrease the size of the projection.

@zeusnitch 7 жыл бұрын

You wouldn't put pin hoes in harms way if you know what's valuable

@sambino97 7 жыл бұрын

CodysLab recently uploaded a video on building something like that

@sleepib 7 жыл бұрын

Yes, though it will be a very small projection if you don't use a very long tube. A 4' tube with a pinhole will get you a projection about the size of a pea.

@christopherbackus5578 7 жыл бұрын

I made a doohickey based on Cody's design. Mine has a focal length (distance from pinhole to screen) of about 30 inches, and the magnified image is still pretty tiny. It will work well enough to view an eclipse, but I wouldn't want to use it to view say, the transit of mercury. I'm in the path of totality for the 2024 eclipse though, and plan to set up a telescope as a solar projector. It's kind of too late for me to set one up now (I don't currently own a telescope). In all honesty though, Cody's pinhole viewer does have some potentially serious drawbacks. You have to essentially look through it like a telescope, which means pointing your face right at the sun. I very nearly blinded myself with sun glare while testing it out. Putting the magnifying lens on the other side of the screen, and then looking at the screen like you would a more traditional pinhole viewer might be safer.

@pratikbabhulkar 7 жыл бұрын

Can you upload a video of Eclipse seen using this funnel? That would be great! Kind of sequel of this video!

@joraforever9899 7 жыл бұрын

saw a similar thing on cody's lab

@cup_and_cone 7 жыл бұрын

I plan to look into binoculars backwards. Heard this was safest method, as long as you stop when you smell burning.

@PracticalEngineeringChannel 7 жыл бұрын

Haha. For anyone reading this comment, do not ever look through unfiltered optics at the sun! It's not worth your vision.

@pubcollize 7 жыл бұрын

Best comment.

@Kevin-yh8ol 7 жыл бұрын

thechosendude I use my old floppy drive only for this.

@forgottenpotato9868 7 жыл бұрын

Practical Engineering Is it ok if you wear sunglasses and look into the sun?

@DerKlappspaten 7 жыл бұрын

@m8sonmiller 6 жыл бұрын

Hey Grady could you do a video on Impractical engineering?

@masterimbecile 7 жыл бұрын

I'm assuming you can hook it up to a binocular in the same way? Cuz that's what I plan on doing.

@capnthepeafarmer 6 жыл бұрын

Could you use a pin hole camera do achieve the same effect?

@atomichabanero9101 6 жыл бұрын

I just observed it with a pinhole projector it was nice I helped some other people with theirs some of them didn't know what I was doing so I showed them what it does.

@fryncyaryorvjink2140 7 жыл бұрын

I have a fresnel lens about the size of a piece of paper that I got from a dollar store, if I point it the right way will it expand the picture onto the ground?

@andljoy 7 жыл бұрын

You promised me explosions !!!. You can also use a pinhole right and project it onto some paper ? Also you would be better with a light grey screen it will improve contrast .

@spencer963 5 жыл бұрын

Did you paint the inside of that aluminum cone with flat black? Looked to have had a good image though nonetheless

@barrywhite7854 5 жыл бұрын

Had to drop a like for the glasses

@byungkyup 2 жыл бұрын

I'm surprised this worked---the ray diagrams you have are not right; the telescope eyepiece is set up to produce a virtual image either at infinity away or some finite distance away, when adjusted for near-sighted people, which means outgoing rays are either parallel or diverging. I'll admit Sun being a pretty bright light source, you might still see something recognizable with an imperfect optical arrangement (we all saw the partial-eclipse shadows through tree leaves), but a lot of resolution is being left on table, if you are just using a regular telescope arrangement.

@kamron_thurmond 6 жыл бұрын

I went with some of my family all the way to Anna, Illinois from Houston, Texas to be in the path of totality. It was worth the drive "There and Back Again" (An Eclipse Tale). Can't wait for 2024 so I can see the path of totality closer to home in or near San Antonio or Austin, Tx.

@MikeV8652 2 жыл бұрын

I'm excited. My house is in the center of the path of totality for that one, and there's an annular eclipse six month earlier in which the path of annularity will be an hour's drive away.

@kamron_thurmond 2 жыл бұрын

@@MikeV8652 Yee yee.

@amenicHD 7 жыл бұрын

Cool, you can even see the sunspots.

@toaster1542 7 жыл бұрын

THE SUN IS A DEADLY LASER

@peterplaysbr 6 жыл бұрын

NOT ANYMORE THERE'S A BLANKET

@rohitshetty9531 4 жыл бұрын

Technically, not a LASER

@iknowyourerightbut6246 7 жыл бұрын

So, will you have a live stream too?

@jimmyshrimbe9361 5 жыл бұрын

Haha that eyeball is super safe from falling hazards!

@SierraSierraFoxtrot 7 жыл бұрын

I don't know at what angle the sun will be in the US during the eclipse, but if it's high, a good way to make it even easier to watch is to point the telescope DOWN at a mirror on the ground so you don't need to bend down to look at the screen. Alternatively put a mirror down to view the screen.

@PracticalEngineeringChannel 7 жыл бұрын

Good idea! I'll be using a star diagonal because it will be nearly straight overhead.

@HighFidelityFox 7 жыл бұрын

What school are you going to? Is it a public event?

@idkidks 7 жыл бұрын

San Antonio?!? Which school? I'd love to meet up and see the sun funnel!

@Holobrine 7 жыл бұрын

Would the sun funnel approach work for other subjects or is the sun special because it's bright enough?

@PracticalEngineeringChannel 7 жыл бұрын

+Holobrine Maybe for the moon, but other subjects won't be bright enough

@thepvporg 5 жыл бұрын

So why not use a piece of sun screen gel over the aperture to limit the amount of incoming light., like sunglasses for telescopes.

@123PieBanana 7 жыл бұрын

are there any solar filters for telescopes you'd recommend? Or any from any particular companies?

@RobertSzasz 7 жыл бұрын

Mícheál Hartman it's too late now, but baader planetarium make great "white light" filters, and thousand oaks makes nice filter material that's quite a bit sturdier

@dylantruong897 7 жыл бұрын

Can printer paper work instead of shower certain? For the screen

@PracticalEngineeringChannel 7 жыл бұрын

I think so, but you need to be careful that it doesn't get a pinhole or tear.

@dylantruong897 7 жыл бұрын

oh thank you

@kay486 7 жыл бұрын

floppy drive is the way to go :D

@PetraKann 7 жыл бұрын

hose clamped the eyepiece?

@nikanj 7 жыл бұрын

I didn't know telescopes could overheat. I guess that large parabolic mirror is very precisely made and wouldn't take well to thermal expansion.

@Felisargyle 7 жыл бұрын

Myrmidon it's like cooking a mirror inside a tube with a parabolic mirror lol

@christopherbackus5578 7 жыл бұрын

It's the secondary mirror that gets cooked. If you've ever seen a parabolic mirror be used as a solar death ray, that's basically what happens to your secondary mirror. A refracting telescope is much better at handling unfiltered sunlight than a reflecting telescope. Though the lenses will get hot and potentially melt their housings.

@AirCannonChannel 7 жыл бұрын

I love these cool since projects, they remind me of my high school.

@HntrSvrsn 7 жыл бұрын

If you live here in San Antonio why do we have such awful roads?

@mysteryman7877 7 жыл бұрын

Hey, Grady! You'll be in the path of totality in 2024! April 2. Check out the path!

@pandagineer1614 3 жыл бұрын

The 2024 eclipse should come really close to you. Hope you kept this device.

@azimalif266 7 жыл бұрын

What's the power of that telescope at 1:16?

@doinker81 7 жыл бұрын

I live in San Antonio! What elementary school are you going to?

@techgenkid2342 6 жыл бұрын

WOW!

@tedjammers Жыл бұрын

Get ready for the popularity of this video going up again soon!

@Gopherborn 7 жыл бұрын

It is supposed to be stormy here in Iowa :(

@krtwood 7 жыл бұрын

Putting a hard hat on your eyeball is probably worse than looking at the sun, though ripping it out of your head to do so has probably made that moot.

@worthlessfajita8816 7 жыл бұрын

that is awesome to bad i live in ecuador and cant see the eclipse

@rroge5 Жыл бұрын

someone should make a sun funnel as a public art installation like at a park. with a telescope that will track the sun , could even be solar powered.

@flytape8490 7 жыл бұрын

Can this be done with binoculars instead of a telescope?

@brentanthony6038 7 жыл бұрын

flytape8490 It sure can. I did something similar with my binocs for the eclipse back in the 90s. Worked even better then I expected.

@peterlaanguila6089 7 жыл бұрын

You draw like a printer there hahahaha

@greco37 7 жыл бұрын

Did our ancestors fry their eyeballs? We'll never know.

@kevinocta9716 6 жыл бұрын

just stack 15 bino viewers on there (each in each of the eye pieces of the previous layer) to get 30 effective eye pieces while reducing light levels by half each layer. (of course this is completely impractical and does not account for how it would effect focal length/ focus-ability... but hey... could be funny.)

@rlv005 7 жыл бұрын

Do you live in Texas??!?

@casualbird7671 6 жыл бұрын

I tried this once, wasn't careful when the sun drifted too far to the side and started focusing on the side of the eyepiece, which melted it a bit >v

@Matt_P 7 жыл бұрын

oh my god i have one of those pencils, its amazing.

@astronot1997 7 жыл бұрын

I had a chance to use an early 20th century historical telescope in Istanbul University. It was a huge telescope and they were still traditionally do old school style observations sometimes. We were putting a paper just like the funnel it hat some extent apparatus. And we were adjusting the paper to calibrate sun into a circle drawn on the paper. When oriented perfectly we were drawing the sun spots with a pencil. In a few days of recorded "sun papers" we could have seen the evolution of the sun spots and the rotation of the sun. When you put your hand between the ocular and the paper it was like a hot beam. You can see a photo of someone doing it here; gozlemevi.istanbul.edu.tr/?p=6450

@Nate65Dawg 7 жыл бұрын

Wish I had a telescope...

@devintiebout 6 жыл бұрын

Welders mask... best solar glasses ever.

@jason-ge5nr 7 жыл бұрын

I'll tell you what I think. I think that is cool.

@hikaruyoroi 6 жыл бұрын

why is KZfaq only showing me this 5 months after the eclipse

@greco37 7 жыл бұрын

Hard to believe people believed the earth was flat despite the evidence presented during an eclipse

@sthngo 7 жыл бұрын

Pretty much nobody who has had any education believed that in about 2000 years, the circumference of the earth has first been calculated (quite accurately) in 240 BC by the greek mathematician Eratosthenes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#Measurement_of_the_Earth.27s_circumference

@greco37 7 жыл бұрын

What are you talking about? I've written in the past tense.

@FISHYFILMPRODUCTIONS 7 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sure my little brother will be at the school you mentioned..

@ArgonZavious 7 жыл бұрын

I would like this to be called a Sunnel.

@Hypercube9 4 жыл бұрын

Apparently you can also use a welding helmet to watch an eclipse.

@notyetdeleted6319 2 жыл бұрын

During the solar eclipse it was completely overcast for me.... 😔

@TS_Mind_Swept Жыл бұрын

So it's the sunle OneHand

@urtisk4288 7 жыл бұрын

I turn off adblock just for you, Grady.

@Cooldude190403 6 жыл бұрын

you should call it a Sununnel

@abnormaalz 7 жыл бұрын

It's a sunnel!

@bonka_mann 7 жыл бұрын

Put a sun funnel in your fudge tunnel

@thrango2379 7 жыл бұрын

A Sunnel?

@DackxJaniels 5 жыл бұрын

"eClIpSe oF tHe cEnTuRy"

@soldtobediers 7 жыл бұрын

Was in Kentucky during the event & was 6 miles from the center of it's path. The day before no dove were to be found flying. Only cicadas & frogs were sounding off before the eclipse. The second the moon began to cover the sun... both the cicadas & frogs were dead silent. Also the 3 to 4 mile per hour breeze drew dead still as well. Several fresh dead cicadas were found after the event & the breeze continued to blow once again. The country folk among us were concerned that their chickens might go to roost during it. The bee box we had set a go pro up at revealed the bees return at the beginning of the eclipse & departed it minutes after as well. 9317