Dance music fans love a good disco ball, and apparently, astronomers do too. A new paper published in the academic journal Physics Education makes the case for “why every observatory needs a disco ball.”
The paper’s authors, seven European university scientists in astronomy and solar physics, contend that “commercial disco balls provide a safe, effective and instructive way of observing the Sun.”
After exploring the optics of solar projections with disco balls through several tests, researchers found that the shiny decorative orbs are excellent for viewing partial solar eclipses when it comes to “safety, accessibility and entertainment value,” adding considerable value in the realm of public education and engagement.
The study equates the “optics” of disco balls to those of the better-known pinhole camera, a novelty frequently used for observing solar phenomena in educational settings.
“Disco balls are collections of what are known as pinhead mirrors, each the reflective equivalent of a pinhole camera aperture,” reads the study.
Disco balls project the unique crescent shape of the sun during a partial solar eclipse in the same manner viewable through the lens of a pinhole camera, according to various diagrams within the study. But unlike the pinhole camera, disco balls are much more affordable.
“Consisting of hundreds of small mirror segments, [disco balls] are readily available at remarkably low prices,” the paper continues. “Additionally, their associations to concerts, discotheques, and parties make them interesting and unexpected objects for demonstrating physics to schoolchildren and the general public.”
Demonstrating the disco ball’s educational value in action, researchers hung one at a German university observatory during a partial solar eclipse in October 2022. Interviewed visitors “clearly understood that they were looking at the Sun because they saw the crescent shape characteristic of the eclipse,” according to the study.
The paper’s authors intend to conduct further tests during the upcoming total solar eclipse this April, an excellent time for EDM fans at Texas Eclipse Festival to try out the marvel for themselves.
Read the full disco ball study here.
Featured image from Unsplash.com.
