Don’t Have Eclipse Glasses? Grab a Kitchen Colander.
Right now across North America we’re slowly experiencing a solar eclipse. If you’re in the “path of totality” — where the moon blocks out the sun — you’ll experience a true natural phenomenon. There’s one catch, though: In order to see this awe-inspiring sight, you’re going to need a special pair of glasses or pinhole projector to protect your eyeballs (unless you’re cool with losing your eyesight).
Don’t have special eclipse glasses, but don’t want to miss out? Neil deGrasse Tyson says you should head into your kitchen to get a standard kitchen colander.
Neil deGrasse Tyson says you should “go into your kitchen and get a spaghetti strainer, or colander — not the mesh, but the kind with holes in it — and go outside and hold it out over the ground.” Apparently “each one of those holes will act as pinhole camera and you’ll see hundreds of images of the crescent sun on the ground, and you can watch the eclipse unfold safely.”
While this doesn’t sound like the most inspiring way to watch the eclipse, it’s definitely better than missing out. And the worst-case scenario is that you look a little nuts by holding a colander out on the ground. But who cares!
Read more: 5 Awesome Food Companies Capitalizing on the Solar Eclipse
Did you try this technique to watch the solar eclipse today? Let us know how it goes!