Can’t find eclipse glasses anywhere in Beaufort County? Try finding a box

It is getting near impossible to find eclipse glasses anywhere in Beaufort County, and when they do become available, crazy lines form as everyone rushes to grab them. If you can’t score eclipse glasses before Monday, though. All hope is not lost.

With a simple box, some scissors, some foil, a sheet of white paper, duct tape and a pin, you can “MacGyver” yourself a safe way to watch the celestial event by building your own pinhole projector.

Building one is simple enough, according to the website Time and Date. Simply cut a rectangle shaped hole at the end of the box, then cut a piece of foil slightly larger than the hole, ensuring that the foil is completely flat and not crinkled in any way.

Using the duct tape, tape the foil over the hole in the box, then use a pin to make a tiny hole in the foil.

Tape the sheet of white paper inside the box opposite the hole. Then cut a hole for you to peer into the box. This could be just big enough for you to press your eye to or, according to Time and Date, if your box is large enough, big enough for you to place your head inside. Make sure that the box is sealed tight so that no light can get in other than through your viewing hole and the pinhole.

When you go outside, look away from the sun. When you hold your box up the image of the eclipse will enter through the pinhole and be projected on the paper on the inside of the box.

You might need to move the projector around a little bit to get the image, according to Time and Date, and what you see in the box will be inverted due to the nature of the optics involved.

If you can get a longer box, Time and Date reports, the projected image will be larger.

This story was originally published August 20, 2017 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Can’t find eclipse glasses anywhere in Beaufort County? Try finding a box."