--- title: Photos: 1960s School Kids Preparing to Safely Watch Solar Eclipse description: In 1963, LIFE joined a class of school kids learning how to watch an eclipse without burning their eyes. canonical: https://time.com/3737424/solar-eclipse-2/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-19T12:00:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T14:41:44.000Z og:title: How to Watch the Solar Eclipse Like a 1960s School Kid og:description: In 1963, LIFE joined a class of school kids learning how to watch an eclipse without burning their eyes. og:url: https://time.com/3737424/solar-eclipse-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta854fe718b91340b/698782c75f570fd3a8b15a64/150309-solar-eclipse-11.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Children demonstrate how to watch a solar eclipse in 1963 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Watch the Solar Eclipse Like a 1960s School Kid twitter:description: In 1963, LIFE joined a class of school kids learning how to watch an eclipse without burning their eyes. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta854fe718b91340b/698782c75f570fd3a8b15a64/150309-solar-eclipse-11.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Watch the Solar Eclipse Like a 1960s School Kid  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 2:41 PM UTCPublished: Mar 19, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Students with their sunscopes. Students with their sunscopes.Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Updated: Jan 24, 2024 2:41 PM UTCPublished: Mar 19, 2015 12:00 PM UTC If you are one of the[ lucky Americans](http://time.com/4906819/solar-eclipse-map-watch/) in position to see [Monday’s total solar eclipse ](http://time.com/4750899/total-solar-eclipse/)—which will [touch 14 states](http://time.com/4884482/total-solar-eclipse-2017-map/) as it crosses the country from coast to coast — you’d do well to take a tip from 1963’s fifth grade class of the Emerson School in Maywood, Illinois. Wielding cardboard boxes and knives that today would surely get a kid suspended, the kids demonstrated for LIFE’s readers how to safely look at an eclipse. During the solar eclipse of 1960, hundreds of people had suffered permanent eye damage from looking directly at the sun. With help from the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Emerson students avoided the same fate by building Sunscopes, pinhole camera-like contraptions that indirectly project an image of the sun. The magazine offered instructions for those desiring to replicate the project at home: --- > “” --- A final word to the wise from LIFE: “Don’t forget to come out for fresh air.” _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at_ [_@LizabethRonk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Caption from LIFE. Fifth-graders at the Emerson School in Maywood, Ill. line up with backs to the sun and their eclipse-watching boxes over their heads. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Fifth-graders from Emerson School in Maywood, Ill. demonstrate how to watch a solar eclipse in 1963. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. In their Maywood, Ill. classroom John Travelstead pastes white paper inside box while Eddie Clemmons tries the head-hole for size. In the end opposite paper, which serves as a viewing screen, they punched pinhole. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Student pokes a hole in his Sunscope. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Teacher explains how a Sunscope works. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Student cuts a head-sized hole. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Student tries on his Sunscope. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Students try on their Sunscopes. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Students carry contraptions outside. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Students with their Sunscopes. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Students with their sunscopes. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Students and sunscopes all in a row. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Students and sunscopes all in a row. 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