The Sun Gun Telescope, as featured in the August 1999 issue of ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'' magazine, was designed so that large groups of people can view the

sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

safely - in particular it was created as a way to encourage children to become interested in

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

. With this safe and portable device, both amateur science enthusiasts and professionals alike can observe

sun spot Sun SPOT (Sun Small Programmable Object Technology) was a sensor node for a wireless sensor network developed by Sun Microsystems announced in 2007. The device used the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for its networking, and unlike other available sen ...

Bruce Hegerberg designed the Sun Gun from a 60 mm diameter 900 mm fl. optical tube which is mounted inside a 3-inch PVC which is in turn connected to a 20-inch plastic flower planter. A

rear projection screen A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image onto a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc lamp ...

is then mounted on the top of the flower planter. The entire Sun Gun can be made from items easily found at most local

hardware store Hardware stores (in a number of countries, "shops"), sometimes known as DIY stores, sell household hardware for home improvement including: fasteners, building materials, hand tools, power tools, keys, locks, hinges, chains, plumbing ...

s. The scope itself is an inexpensive 60mm

refractor A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and ...

available from many sources.

References

{{Reflist
Sun of a Gun
featured in ''Scientific American''
"Training Squadron adds new scope to training."
USAF

The Philadelphia Inquirer article August 20, 2017
Sun of a Gun
Scientific American Vol. 281, No. 2 (AUGUST 1999), pp. 88-89 by Shawn Carlson
Rebuilding Education
Scientific American Vol. 281, No. 5 (NOVEMBER 1999) by Wolfgang Benedek
Supporting Cyber School
Scientific American Vol. 281, No. 5 (NOVEMBER 1999) by Bonnie White
Eclipse Day Activities
the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum's Sun Gun

External links

Original Sun Gun web site

Sun Gun web site
Telescope types Scientific American

See also

References

External links