Three ways to make your own eclipse-safe viewers with ordinary household items

As Ireland gears up for an upcoming solar eclipse, experts are stressing that wearing sunglasses is not effective protection against the harsh rays. 

As safety is paramount, many who don't own the professional apparatus are turning to DIY methods to craft their own protective eyewear at home. 

Making a viewer from a cereal or shoe box: 

1. Find a small cereal or shoe box
2. Cut two openings at the bottom of the box
3. Using tape, cover one of the openings with a piece of paper or tin foil punctured with a small pinhole
4. Face away from the sun, allowing the light to hit the pinhole
5. Looking through the remaining opening to the inside of the box, watch as the sun projection goes from a complete circle to an eclipse.

Use a colander:

1. Stand with your back toward the sun
2. Hold up the colander to a sheet of paper to see the eclipse.

Use a slotted spoon:

1. Stand with your back toward the sun
2. Hold up the slotted spoon to a sheet of paper to see the eclipse.

NOTE: Experts say it is not safe to look up at the sun during a solar eclipse while wearing sunglasses, no matter how dark the lenses are.