If you’ve ever wanted to view the sun, you know how dangerous it is to point ANYTHING with lenses at the sun. I mean, you can really fry your retina faster than you can say “sunlight”.
So what do you do if your kid who’s crazy wild about astronomy, but don’t know how to view the sun safely? Here’s a video that show you step-by-step how to do just that.
Even if you don’t have a fancy telescope, it doesn’t mean that you can’t appreciate the cool images that this scope takes. Not only do you get to see sunspots, but you also get to see solar flares and prominences around the outer edge. (Image below courtsey of Mark Hellweg).
The image above was taken by an expert solar astrophotographer, as well as a camera permanently mounted to the eyepiece.
Here’s some handouts that you might find useful:
The above images are handouts I put together that go with the solar telescope for when the general public come up and ask if they can look through it. They usually want to know what I’m looking at, if it’s safe, and then they usually have a million questions about the sun itself that they never asked before. This is the kind of excitement you want to ignite in your own child.
If you’d like to do astronomy with your students this coming year, be sure to check out my online science curriculum for grades K through 12 at www.SuperchargedScience.com/easy