Hot on the heels of the amazing image of Pluto and Charon, and the simply cool one of Jupiter through an iPhone, comes one that is just as nifty, and made with an even simpler camera!
New Scientist has the details of this incredible image of the Sun taken over the course of six months with a pinhole camera. Taken by Justin Quinnell, it shows the path of the Sun from winter to sumer over Bristol in the UK. Each arc is the Sun, blurred by its daily motion, and the differing heights of the arcs shows how the Sun’s position in the sky changes with seasons.
Pinhole cameras are very cool; the hole is so small that any light rays from a small object entering it and hitting the film are naturally very close to parallel, and therefore in focus. You don’t need a lens! It’s similar to the depth-of-field issue versus aperture in a regular camera. Anyway, this is a very cool shot, and you should check out the New Scientist page, since it has more info, including links on how to do this yourself.
Image credit: New Scientist and Justin Quinnell.
Tip o’ the lens cap to Science Punk
