by Tom Swords

At the 2023 AAAP solar event on Memorial weekend, I employed my “Scope on a Stick” solar viewer. It allows one or more viewers to easily and safely see the solar disk in white light cast onto a white screen.

I constructed the instrument using the instructions located here: http://richardsont.people.cofc.edu/safe_solar_folder/index.html

Here is the link to Surplus Shed. They have the lens kits.
https://www.surplusshed.com/search.php?search=safe+solar+viewer

The device can be hand held or mounted to a manual or guided mount with the appropriate hardware. There are alternative construction materials and designs in the instruction guide. The guide is being updated for the 2024 solar eclipse. See the link above for the instructions for details.

The instructions explain the different optical components and how to employ them. It makes for a great “hands on” project to see how the optical components work together.

I took the basic design and modified it for durability. I used aluminum square tubing, aluminum angle and wood that I had on hand.

I was fortunate to have a 60mm achromatic lens for my construction in place of the singlet objective that came with the kit. The singlet lens provided with the kit from Surplus Shed had worked just fine. I simply desired a larger image.

The instrument will provide for safe viewing of the solar eclipse in 2024.

This was an interesting project and I am quite pleased that it works as well as it does!