Introduction to pinhole astronomy

TL;DR

This paper introduces pinhole astronomy as an educational tool, demonstrating how simple experiments can verify Kepler's laws and Rayleigh's formula for image sharpness, enhancing high school science education.

Contribution

It presents a practical method for high school students to observe the Sun and verify astronomical laws using pinhole experiments, emphasizing error minimization techniques.

Findings

Successful verification of Kepler's laws using pinhole observations.

Confirmation of Rayleigh's formula for image sharpness.

Guidelines for minimizing measurement errors in educational experiments.

Abstract

The observation of the Sun with a pinhole in order to check the first and the second Kepler's law has been realized for high school students. The settling of the experiment in order to minimize the errors of measure has permitted to verify the Rayleigh formula for obtaining sharpest images given the diameter of the pinhole.