DIY Aragoscope!? (Patreon)

So following up on the little teaser clip I had on the end of my last video: My idea was to use a solid object to make a "lens" for a type of telescope called an aragoscope. 

So the first (title) image is what I managed to get using a paper as a screen and focusing my camera on it. The image is a bit fuzzy but you can just make it out. The second image is the light source (an iphone 6s) with a needle over the LED light. The needle is to make a distinct shape, and without it there would just be a fuzzy spot. The 3rd image is the result of taking the lens off the camera and positioning the shadow over the sensor, which made a slightly better picture. The 4th image is what I am using to occult the light: 1/4inch magnets in between glass.  and the final two are from a test where I had pin pricks in a peice foil covering the light and a piece of card stock with a hole held in front of the camera to block most of the excess light. 

This imaging technique is very powerful: even though the light source is over 20 feet away and and just a few millimeters across I'm able to take a recognizable photo of it. I think thats pretty good for what is basically a tiny 6.2mm lens. At that range I couldn't get an image large enough to see the needle even with a 4inch magnifying glass.   

It would be even more powerful to do this with a shadow disk that is bigger However I think just a 1 inch disk would require increasing the shadow length from 16 inches to 21 feet.