The Great American Eclipse

After a last minute decision to drive from NYC to Nashville to see the eclipse in August 2017, and no equipment to safely view an eclipse,  I did what engineers do best - make it work and make it work fast.

Initially, I had intended on making some kind of solar lens for my Celestron telescope that would mimic what Celestron sold commercially (which, of course, was long sold out). A quick trip to a local hardware store provided the solar filters, thanks to some sacrificed eclipse glasses. An adapter was designed in Fusion360 and 3D printed, which was used to sandwich the filter onto the opening in the telescope dust cover.  Unfortunately, the opening proved to be too small to allow sufficient light through so a new solution was needed.

A few hours of digging online the day before leaving brought up the idea of a sun funnel. Generally, this isn't the best idea for a Newtonian telescope without an all-metal/glass lens, but it was all or nothing at this point! Fortunately, there was Home Depot in the area and all the needed supplies were acquired the morning of the eclipse. The sun funnel also allowed other eclipse goers in the area to view the event without glasses, so it was a hit with the crowd!