Andrew GengToday I'm thankful I used an improvised eclipse device instead of my real telescope. It was enough resolution to see that big sunspot today so there will be future iterations targeting transits of Mercury. But I'll uh think a little harder about where I put flammable surfaces next time around, especially when the aim is off.
Other lessons learned: A nice secondary lens gives you better images (but other people report cracked lenses so uh maybe calculate some watts/m² numbers and monitor temperatures). One I borrowed was nice enough to make an image of the corona during totality—but only bright enough to see with the screen much closer than had been comfortable in full sunlight.
Here are photos from my folks showing the gadget in action. Apparently some quick thinker got a photo of the corona projection! I only wish I'd been as quick and thought to fix the focus. Whoops.
keeps vis.social running