User: jamoross

Re:Safety, Remember Safety

On: 2004 Venus Transit In Pictures

Okay, looks like the flatness of the mirror is
more important than I thought at first. And I
guess not everyone is likely to have optical
grade mirrors lying around like I do.

But the platter out of an old hard disk is very
flat. If it has bright plated media, it'll work.

Now where's that old 800MB Quantum drive gone...?

- jam

Re:Safety, Remember Safety

On: 2004 Venus Transit In Pictures

I keep looking around and I have yet to see
anyone mention my method of eclipse viewing.
I'm pretty sure it will work for the Venus
transit as well.

All you need is a pocket mirror and a wall or
other flat surface that is in the shade. Stand
in the sunlight and use the mirror to reflect
sunlight onto the shady wall. That's it! If the
distance from your mirror to the wall is large
compared to the size of the mirror, an image of
the sun is projected. (Specifically, the edges
of the mirror act as an aperture similar to the
pinhole camera effect.)

The resolution of the projected image is limited
a little bit by the flatness of the mirror, but
mostly by the ratio of the mirror size to the
wall distance. Doesn't look like I'll get a
chance to see if it's sharp enough to see Venus;
the weather forcast for here (Tokyo) is for rain.

- jam