The April 8 total solar eclipse cut a visible path across much of North America. Though it was only partially seen here in the Bay Area, that didn’t stop members of Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division from gathering outside Building 66 to watch the event.
Using a standard pair of binoculars affixed with cable ties to a tripod, interim MSD Division Director Peter Fischer blocked one lens with a paper bag and cut a hole for the other lens, creating a shadow on a cardboard screen oriented roughly orthogonal to the axis to the sun.
“Since the projected image was about six to eight feet away from the binocular, the image of the sun was about four to five inches in diameter, which made it easy to watch the eclipse,” Fischer said. “One can even see some sunspots.”