Eaton Family Solarcan Project - Phase 2: Olivia

As covered in previous posts, late last year I discovered a product called the Solarcan, a pinhole camera created using an aluminum can with a small hole in the side and photographic paper inside, all to capture long-period exposures (weeks, months, years) of the Sun as it moves across the sky each day, images called solargraphs. 

Here is an example from the Solarcan Gallery:

I bought a five-pack of Solarcans in December and used one to shoot a sample shot to share with my grandkids; see Phase 1 post. I gave the other four to them as Christmas gifts. 

Last week, we visited our son Brian, his wife Amber and grandkids Olivia and Owen.  At 16 months old, Owen isn't quite ready for solargraphy so didn't get a Solarcan this time but Olivia and I spent time during our visit planning and installing hers.

While Jack and Harper (last post) live in a rural setting, Olivia's family lives in the burbs.  They have a new patio and it is where she, Owen and their Dachshunds, Oliver and Dash, love to play. It happens that their house faces almost due north so we installed Olivia's Solarcan on the front fence facing due south with their patio centered in the view. Here is an arial view with current directions for sun rise (yellow line) and sun set (orange line). 

Installed this way, over the coming months the sun should trace arcs from left to right, from above their  fence across the sky to their roof with the side yard and patio centered in the view. Each day the sun will trace an arc a little higher until we get to the summer solstice after which the arcs traced will be lower and lower. Here is the view from Olivia's installed Solarcan. 

Similar to the case with Harper's and the gallery example above, with some trees in view on the left, there should be some gaps in the solar paths across the image where branches block the light,  adding an interesting twist to the solargraph  when it is done. 

But the trees won't be the only reason for gaps. Notice the other gaps in the tracks of the sun in the gallery example? Any idea what those are from? 

You guessed it: cloudy days. Naturally, we can't capture the light of the sun on days when it's not visible!

When will we find out what Olivia's finished solargraph looks like? Our plan is to leave it up about 6 months but since we didn't get hers up until almost two months after the winter solstice, the lower tracks left by the sun won't be as low as they could have been. If she is patient, perhaps hers can stay up for a full year in which case there will be arcs of the sun across her solargraph from as low as the sun gets in the winter to as high as it gets in the summer! 

I'll post the results later this year so stay tuned... 

 

Eaton Family Solarcan Project - Phase 2: Jack and Harper

As covered in the Phase 1 post, I've started playing around with a product called the Solarcan, a pinhole camera created using an aluminum can with a small hole in the side and photographic paper inside, all to capture long-period exposures (weeks, months, years) of the Sun as it moves across the sky each day, images called solargraphs. 

I bought a five-pack in December and used one to shoot a sample shot to share with my grandkids; see previous post. I gave the other four to them as Christmas gifts. 

Earlier this month, we went to see son Chris, his wife Katie and our grandkids Jack and Harper. They have about an acre out in the country. They also have chickens and an Australian shepherd. Not quite a farm but still a very rural setting. I figured this could make for some interesting solargraph images. 

First, Jack and I talked about where a good spot would be for his Solarcan. They have a power pole on the northern edge of their property so we selected as the place to install his camera. 

From this spot, there is a full view of their backyard. The resulting solargraph should have bright lines arcing across from left to right over the shop and chicken coop. Movement of earthbound things generally won't be captured in the image so the solargraph will probably not include people, the dog or chickens.  

Pin marks the spot for Jack's Solarcan. It's oriented towards noon-time solar position. 

The view from Jack's camera. The chicken coop is next to the shop in center of image. 

When it came time to set up Harper's Solarcan, she wanted to have a view of their front yard so we picked a fence post out front. As we were setting it up, she realized she really wanted to have the chicken coop in the view. By mounting the camera a bit higher on the post, the coop is just visible over the fence so she was happy with that. 

Pin marks the spot for Harper's Solarcan, also oriented towards the noon-time solar position.

The view from Harper's camera. Note the tree branches. The chicken coop is just over the fence.

For Harper's Solarcan, one thing that will be interesting is that as the sun traces tracks across the image from lower left, up across the center and then down to the lower right, it will pass behind branches of the trees along the fence line on either side. 

In most solargraphs, the lines traced by the sun have occassional gaps caused by periods of cloudiness. For Harper's, there will also be gaps from the branches obsuring the sun. With the wind blowing them and the trees growing, the gaps may change from day to day, week to week. 

The differences between Jack's and Harper's solargraph images, both in terms of the overall scenes and with the view being mostly clear in Jack's but with Harper's having branches in the view, should make seeing each of these side by side when done very interesting. 

Now that they are up, the plan is to leave them up about 6 months. We didn't get them up until a month after the winter solstice so the lower tracks left by the sun won't be as low as they could have been but each day between now and mid-summer the tracks will go higher up the image. 

I'll post the results later this year so stay tuned...