Overview 

The goal of this activity is to have the students understand why we cannot look directly at the Sun, and provide an alternative way of viewing the Sun. 

Our Sun is the centre of our solar system. It provides us with light and life. Students may be curious about the Sun – and should be – so it is important to provide a way to feed that curiosity safely. This is where our Sun viewer comes in. 

The instructions on how to make and use the Sun viewer are provided in the downloadable Lesson Plan on this page. There is also a PowerPoint presentation with graphic aids to show how the science behind the Sun viewer works. In short, we use a pinhole Sun viewer to lessen the amount of light we receive from the Sun, making it safe for us to view an image of the Sun in a controlled manner. 

The safe sun viewer in use.