In this part of the tutorial we continue building the camera obscura.

Part 1 of this tutorial is here

Cut a piece of tracing paper and put it over the observation window. If you don't have tracing paper you can use Wax paper. One sheet might work but you might need two sheets of wax paper.

Place the shroud over it temporarily.

Now put that front piece on. (the one with the lens on it) and check your image in the observation window. Does an image show? Is it blurry. Move this front piece back and forth like the black arrows show in order to bring the image into sharp focus.

Will's Tips on getting it to work good t Keep everything straight. Make sure that wall with the lens is nice and straight up and down. It needs to send the image straight to the mirror then bounce up straight to the observation window.

And , Light is very important for this. Point it out a window on a bright and sun shiny day. Keeping yourself and the box in low light. The shroud you made helps a lot.

Once you have it set up so it works maximum well you can go ahead and glue that front plate in.

Then glue the top piece on.

If your telescope had a dew cap you can also glue that onto your box over the lens.

Now, tape over any cracks in your camera obscura. You want to seal it from light. It should be nice and dark inside that box. Seal around the edges of your shroud too.

Your camera obscura is done. From here you can add details and decorations. I added two foam board bands to look like metal bands. The silver dots on the bands look like rivets but they are just globs of hot glue.

Okay! Your Camera Obscura is done. But you can also use it to draw and trace pictures.

Continue and learn how to do this

Make a Thaumatrope

A thaumatrope is the very first example of the phenomenon of persistence of vision where images merge together. And in a way it is where film and animation started. Two images blur together as you spin it. I have a tutorial on how to make one and I give you four sets of images in a template so you can print them up and make them.
Make a Thaumatrope

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