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A
pinhole aperture place in a beam of sunlight casts an
image of the sun onto a screen, revealing solar features
including sunspots. A prism is placed in the beam of
sunlight gathered by a heliostat to redirect a small
portion of the light. One face of the prism is masked
except for a hole 1/8 in diameter. Light passing
through the hole is reflected at 90 degrees by total
internal reflection, creating an image of the sun about
8 inches in diameter with a resolution roughly equal
to the diameter of the the pinhole.
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