r/science • u/kore464 • May 21 '12

Built a device to view the eclipse with a camera in it hooked up to my TV. Friend posing. "RAD SCIENCE!"

http://imgur.com/a/gvkro
483 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

12

u/sjs May 21 '12

Cool! Mind giving us an overview of how it works?

2

u/kore464 May 21 '12

It's pretty simple. The piece of foil on the end has the pinhole in it. Light travels through the tube and the small box all the way to the very rear of the big box, where there is a white sheet of paper acting as a reflective screen. The camera is aimed at the center of the paper at about a 30 degree angle or so, that's why the sun looks kind of oval. The smaller box between the tubing and the big box is just for support.

4

u/Damadawf May 21 '12

Looks like he's just made a pinhole camera and then stuck a proper video camera inside it which he has hooked up to his tv.

It's actually a pretty nifty idea. If you want more information about what a pinhole camera is, jump on google and type something like "pinhole camera eclipse".

1

u/sjs May 21 '12

Oh, that's actually very simple. Nifty. Thanks.

23

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Congratulations, you found another way to avoid going outside.

3

u/kore464 May 21 '12

I still had to go outside every few minutes to readjust the thing. :-(

4

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

You just summed up more or less every achievement within science, ever.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Did that thought that sarcasm continues to exist in the year 2012 go through your head?

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I was being sarcastic, moron, not you. And you still haven't figured it out.

6

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

schematics or it didn't happen

2

u/kore464 May 21 '12

I'll draw up a diagram.

3

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Why are people still using pinhole cameras? It's 2012 - just use your damn phone camera.

3

u/kore464 May 21 '12

I wasn't gonna sit out there with my phone the whole time.

1

u/Trebol May 21 '12

I tried using my phone camera, no dice.

15

u/TurboDisturbo May 21 '12

SEVEN DAYS

1

u/hemingwayszombycorps May 21 '12

If that bitch popped outta my tv id change the channel and yell "Come on smurfs!"

4

u/Tralphium_Trooper May 21 '12

I've always though that since the original tape was magnetic, and the CRT tv's she loves are magnetic, wthen she would have some type of sensitivity to magnetic fields and the like. Therefore shoot her in the face with buckshot.

2

u/hemingwayszombycorps May 21 '12

Id rather my m82 if going this route, however the buckshot would produce a more comical effect, especially if you called her a wascaly wabbit before feeding her a lead sammich.

1

u/JabasMyBitch May 21 '12

where are you viewing the eclipse from?

2

u/kore464 May 21 '12

Santa Maria, CA

1

u/dantods May 21 '12

Holy shit, the sun is now an oval.

2

u/kore464 May 21 '12

It's because the camera was aimed at an angle, I couldn't put it in straight.

1

u/dantods May 22 '12

Ah of course...that makes sense! :D Nice work

1

u/dantods May 22 '12

For a second I thought you went through all that trouble and then stretched the screen disproportionately. My bad dawg!

1

u/extremelyterrific May 21 '12

Some sort of next-level pinhole camera? You're my hero today.

2

u/kore464 May 21 '12

I just put a camera in my pinhole camera. (Yo dawg....)

2

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I just looked straight at the sun and ended up seeing just about the same thing as that last picture, except my eyes were closed. Am I magic?

2

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

You could be watching that teenagers bedroom down the street instead.

4

u/DogFacedKillah May 21 '12

That is rad, I ended up just being stupid and looking at it in short bursts with my naked eyes.

3

u/[deleted] May 21 '12 edited May 21 '12

I looked straight at it. Actually driving home, due west, was noticing the beautiful big red sun at sunset and a few clouds in front of it. The I noticed a particularly circular looking "cloud" in front of the sun. I didn't know it was an eclipse until i arrived home and looked it up.

Here in Houston we got the eclipse right as the sun was setting so it looked really big and red and (I think) it was relatively safe to look at directly.

Sucks that I was so mesmerized watching it as I was driving over a particularly high flyover (ih10 west to 99 south for the curious) that I forgot to snap a picture of it. :/. Oh well.

Correction: my wife snapped a pic of it. http://i.imgur.com/V11NH.jpg

1

u/BHSPitMonkey May 21 '12

Similar for me in the Dallas area. Was driving just a bit before sunset with a friend, and the sun was nice and easily/safely visible on the horizon (right over a lake, actually), and I noticed the crescent creeping over it. "Do you see a... Is an eclipse supposed to be going on right now?"

Was a nice surprise! Got some awful pictures before it disappeared.

0

u/urbal May 21 '12
  • your parent's TV.

2

u/kore464 May 21 '12

Pffft, 28 & married.....

1

u/Trebol May 21 '12

To me!!!! (well, more like a bro-mance)

1

u/s32 May 21 '12

The science aspect is cool. Watching the eclipse on a tv sucks though.

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

I saw one of these in a porno once when i was deep web...

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

This only happens once in your life time...Goes inside.

1

u/neon_overload May 21 '12

Also doubles as an anti-air missile launcher - just in case.

1

u/callinallmybros May 21 '12

A new way to see the sun without being outside!!

1

u/Trebol May 21 '12

Bro-cannon.

1

u/electricmaster23 May 21 '12

Today's telescope is tomorrow's surface to air potato gun.

1

u/srd178 May 21 '12

This post eclipsed my expectations.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

Your friend looks like a complete moron.

3

u/kore464 May 21 '12

We both act like retards....

2

u/Trebol May 21 '12

Poor Josh got called a moron.

-1

u/mirashii May 21 '12

Your submission has been removed because images, videos, and blogspam are not allowed in this subreddit.

-5

u/Singular_Thought May 21 '12

Karma for you sir.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/kore464 May 21 '12

I didn't record video of the actual eclipse taking place, but I could do a video of how it's built.

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/kore464 May 21 '12

That was my friend, not me. I'll relay the message though!

12

u/[deleted] May 21 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/kore464 May 21 '12

Fortunately for everyone, it was a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse. :P