Solar eclipse: last-minute ways to safely watch the eclipse using household items

Looking straight at the sun during the event could cook your retinas

People watch the eclipse of the sun through a colander, over the Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall

It might be too late to grab some glasses to watch the eclipse — and they’re very expensive anyway — but you can still safely watch the eclipse using items you can find in your home or office.

The most obvious way of doing that is to use two sheets of paper. Create a hole in one, and hold the other in front of you — stand with the sun behind you and let the light shine through the hole and onto the paper.

You can do the same using a colander. The holes in the colander will also work like the pinhole, projecting small, safe versions of the eclipse onto paper or another surface.