Make a Stereoscope
Have you ever considered making your own stereoscope? Surprisingly, it is neither difficult nor expensive to do. Making your own stereoscopic tool is an interesting and informative project.
Steps
- Note that a stereoscope consists of four parts:
- a backing board;
- a lens holder;
- a separator; and
- a connecting strip.
- Position the pieces.
- Place the connecting strip so that it holds the backing board and the lens holder at the correct focusing distance of the lenses. This is known as the “focal length".
- Put the separator between the lenses. This is to stop your eyes from looking at the photo on the other side.
- Line the centers of the lenses with the centers of your photographs. Use lenses with no more than a 2X magnification for normal-sized photographs. You can use greater magnifications for smaller pictures. You can even dismantle a cheap pair of reading glasses for the lenses if you cannot find any other source.
- Create a means for holding the photos.
- Use two slide viewers for transparencies.
Warnings
- Don’t get too carried away viewing your stereo masterpieces; this is easily addictive.
Things You'll Need
- Wood or plastic for construction, depending on your level of expertise.
- Glue to attach the lenses to the lens holder and to assemble everything.
- A ruler to measure everything, not the least of which is the focal length of your lenses.
- A little imagination to decipher the drawings.
