Pinhole projection is an easy way for individuals to watch the eclipse. Most people have some paper, card or cardboard available, so it costs nothing.

Make sure that you stand with your back to the Sun. Do not let anyone look through the pinhole - only use it to project an image of the Sun as shown.

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Make a small gap between your thumb and forefinger and let the Sun shine through it on onto a flat, light-coloured surface. The sunlight passing through the gap will show the shape of the Sun - here the Sun is not eclipsed, and it looks circular.

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Here is a Personal Pinhole Projector in action.

If you look closely,

• What is the shape of the hole?
• What is the shape of the projected image of the Sun?

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Card with round and triangular holes of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm diameter held 30 cm from a white card.
Projected sunlight has the shape of the holes.

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Card with round and triangular holes of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm diameter held 1 metre from a white card.
Projected sunlight through larger triangular holes is now halfway between the shape of the holes and the round shape of the Sun. The smaller triangular holes are giving round images.

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Card with round and triangular holes of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 mm diameter held 2 metres from a white card.
Projected sunlight thorugh the large triangular holes now shows the round shape of the Sun, not the shapes of the holes.

Only use the pinhole projector as shown. Do not look through the hole at Sun, as you may damage your eyes.

The simplest and cheapest method of observing an eclipse of the Sun is by pinhole projection. How does this work? The rays of light from the light source must travel in straight lines through the pinhole. This results in a reversed image of the light source being seen where the light of the image falls.

This is easily shown with a clear incandescent light bulb, as found in a normal household lamp. The filament in the these bulbs is held by several loops of wire so as to form an arc made of several linear segments. This looks rather like the shape of the partly eclipsed Sun.

To demonstrate pinhole projection we then need:

• a light bulb
• paper or card in which several small holes have been made
• a screen, such as a wall, on which the light passing through the pinholes can fall.

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The place and time of the last total solar eclipse is well recorded here.

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