What you need

1. long box (at least 6 feet long)
2. a piece of aluminum foil
3. a pin,
4. a sheet of white paper

Length of the box

• The length of the box is important.
• The longer the box, the bigger the pinhole image.
• To find the size of the image, multiply the length of the box by the number 0.00873. For a box that is 1 meter long, the image will be 0.00873 meters (or 8.77 mm) in diameter.
• If your box is 5 feet (60 inches) long, your solar image will be 60 x 0.00873 = 0.52 inches in diameter.
• If you want to round things off, the size of the image is about 1/100th the length of the box.
• If you can’t find a long box or tube, you can tape together two or more boxes to make a longer one. In the illustrations below, we found that taping together two triangular UPS shipping tubes works well. Of course, if you do this, you must cut out the cardboard at the ends of the tube in the middle!

Making the projector

1. Find or make a long box or tube.
2. Cut a hole in the center of one end of the box.
3. Tape a piece of foil over the hole.
4. Poke a small hole in the foil with a pin.
5. Cut a viewing hole in the side of the box.
6. Put a piece of white paper inside the end of the box near the viewing portal.
7. Point the end of the box with the pinhole at the sun so that you see a round image on the paper at the other end. If you are having trouble pointing, look at the shadow of the box on the ground. Move the box so that the shadow looks like the end of the box (so the sides of the box are not casting a shadow). The round spot of light you see on the paper is a pinhole image of the sun. Do not look through the pinhole at the sun! Look only at the image on the paper.

Video of how to make a Pinhole Projector (Dhivehi version)

Pinhole projection diagram

Digram via physics.unlv.edu

Eclipse Projection

Eclipse projection