Published: 20:45 BST, 12 August 2026 | Updated: 10:11 BST, 13 August 2026
Britons desperate to catch a glimpse of the spectacular solar eclipse were forced to get creative after struggling to get their hands on proper glasses.
With supplies selling out and queues forming at shops across London, some viewers resorted to an unlikely bit of kitchen equipment – the humble colander.
Rather than looking directly at the sun, eclipse-watchers used the holes in their colanders to project dozens of tiny images of the eclipsed sun onto the ground.
Each hole acts like a tiny pinhole camera, producing a little crescent-shaped image as the moon moves across the face of the sun.
The result was a pattern of hundreds of miniature eclipses dancing across pavements and grass – turning an everyday kitchen utensil into an unlikely astronomical instrument.
One video shows an elderly gentleman in a packed park in London holding up a small colander with his back to the sun with a piece of paper behind the sieve.
Around him were other spectators trying to catch the eclipse with colanders and other homemade forms of viewing, like a pinhole eclipse viewer.
While it may look amusing, the trick provided a clever and safe way to watch the eclipse indirectly, provided viewers kept their backs to the sun and only looked at the projected images.
An elderly gentleman was seen holding up a small colander with his back to the sun with a piece of paper behind the sieve to try watch the solar eclipse
He was not alone as other members of the public used a colander to observe a partial solar eclipse from Brockwell Park in South London
A person uses a colander to observe a partial solar eclipse against a wall in Storrington, west Sussex
Arsenal fans are seen using cardboard and a colander to try and see the solar eclipse prior to the pre-season friendly match between Arsenal FC and Como Calcio at Emirates Stadium
Dr Megan Argo, an astrophysicist from the University of Lancashire, told the Daily Mail: 'The safest way for the public to enjoy the eclipse is to view it indirectly.Â
'Standing beneath a leafy tree creates hundreds of tiny images of the Sun on the ground, which gradually change into crescents as the eclipse progresses.
