SolarScope - Transit of Venus Prize

[Shark Bait (Stu)]

This is the SolarScope that my Son's school won after entering the Transit of Venus Competition. They were having some problems getting the image to focus and asked if I could have a look at it. It was an issue with the focal length. The problem was fixed by adding a rubber band to lock the position of the tube. The band can be seen in the 1st and 2nd images. It now works a treat.

Cost of the rubber band, less than a cent. A focused image of the Sun showing sharp sunspots.....Priceless!

This is a great piece of kit. The only problem is that I now have to give it back.

[gary]

Hi Stu,

Well done to the school for winning it and well done for the quick fix.

Hope they get some clear skies tomorrow.

It makes one ponder whether some of the children on Earth who will see the transit tomorrow are going to be able to live long enough to
witness the next one in 105 years time due to some unforeseen future advance in medicine giving a dramatic rise to longevity.

[Shark Bait (Stu)]

Thanks Gary,

Hope you get clear skies as well.

Stu.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

My son's school got one of these too

[Shark Bait (Stu)]

And another image. The real time view is better than what I can reproduce in a photo but this does give a good idea of what can be achieved with this setup.

Are any other IIS members involved with schools that have ended up with one of these SolarScopes?

[Poita (Peter)]

Every school that entered received one. They are a great little device.