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The MACH 3

But Ben and the rest of us all took into account the many warnings we had heard about how looking directly at the sun was a huge no-no. The sun's rays can literally burn the cells of the retina, leading to blindness. We had to observe the sun indirectly.

The Stream Team was up to the task though and quickly developed a special line of solar eclipse viewers, each bigger and better than the last. The Version 1 prototype, displayed by Ben in the accompanying photograph consists of the standard pair of binoculars and piece of white paper. The binoculars are pointed at the sun as if you are going to look through them and the piece of paper is placed where your eyes would be. The binoculars, instead of focusing an image at the back of your eye, focus an image on the paper. This model has the advantages of mobility and ease of assembly. However, the image is small, arms move so the image of the sun is frequently lost, and Ben just got plain tired of holding the setup.


Version 1 - Ben



Version 1 - Eclipse starts

Version 2.0, also known as the Super Deluxe Solar Eclipse Hunter consists of a level and tripod. Like the binoculars, the level acts in essence like a telescope focusing the sun's image on, in our case, the palm of Justin's hand.



Version 2 - Justin


Sun on Justin's Hand

Unlike the binoculars, however, the level can be mounted on the tripod so nobody has to hold it in place. Moreover, the heights of the legs can be adjusted and the level swiveled in a 360-degree rotation enhancing the Hunter's solar eclipse tracking ability.

Replace Justin's hand with a piece of white paper taped onto a folding chair. Add a finely crafted cardboard shield around the level to create a shadow on the paper so that the image appears brighter, and you have Version 2.1, the Super Duper Deluxe Solar Eclipse Hunter. Both versions have the advantage that, when dismantled, the level and tripod can actually be used for their original purpose, surveying. However, the image may still appear quite small in which case Version 3 might be the way to go.


Chris, Ben and Justin

Super Duper Image

The problem with creating a larger image is that the bigger the image, the dimmer and more difficult to see it gets because the light is distributed over a wider area. Version 3, the so-called Mach 3 Mac Daddy Polar Solar
Eclipse Seeker takes care of that. The Mach 3 features a specially designed cardboard box. The box is some three feet in length and fits precisely onto the eyepiece of the level. The sun's image is then projected onto the back of the cardboard box. Because the distance between the eyepiece and image is greater than in the other versions, the image appears larger, about the diameter of a decent-sized navel orange. And because the image is projected inside a comparatively dark box, it does not appear unduly dim.


The Mach 3


The sun on the on the cardboard box

A little while after the Mach 3 was ready to go, the eclipse reached its maximum coverage. We got a good look at the image. Then, content with our solar eclipse viewing success, we went back inside the hut of our base camp, and prepared lunch.

- Karen