Sunglass Lens Polariscope

General Information

What is it?: OK...how many times have you been out on the beach and said to yourself, "Darn it, I should have brought my polariscope?" How many? None probably. But you might find yourself short on funds right now and need a working polariscope. Or you just might want to have some fun and make a polariscope out of some old polaroid sunglasses....if so, here's how.

Just go get yourself some cheap sunglasses, (wasn't there a song about that...ZZ Top perhaps?) like the one's shown above. I picked them up at WalGreens for US$7.95. The just follow the next few steps and you will not only have yourself a very cost effective polariscope, but you will have some fun in the process. Here's how it works.....

And if you are careful, you can pop those lenses back in and have yourself a pair of cheap sunglasses again. Hey, you never know when someone may ask you, "Can you tell me if my gemstone is single or double refractive?." And now you can whip those sun glasses right off and give them a proper answer...right there on the spot. (I really had fun puttng this together in case you couldn't tell)

Well, that was easy wasn't it. And the nice think about it is that it works. But you have to remember to have polarizing sunglasses to start with or it won't work. To see if you have polarizer sunglasses just take two pair and look at the light with one pair in front of the other. Rotate one of the pair. If the lenses go from light to dark you have polarizing sunglasses...and you have yourself a polariscope that you can wear on your face. Enjoy!

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