Why is it more dangerous to look at the sun during total eclipse than in watching the sun set?

Answer 1

The normal daytime sun poses little danger to your eyes because it is uncomfortably bright and we instinctively look away. The setting sun is strongly dimmed by being filtered through a lot of atmosphere, so that you can look at it comfortably and safely.

The danger in looking at a solar eclipse high in the sky is that if a tiny sliver of sun is showing, it is bright enough to burn your retina if you stare at it, but there isn't enough total brightness to make it uncomfortable to do so.

There is no harm in looking at the totally eclipsed sun, as long as you look away or put on your eclipse glasses as soon as the first ray of sunlight emerges from behind the moon.

Answer 2

It is not more dangerous, is it simply dangerous.

Never, ever look directly at the Sun!

This is more than advice. Why? As a kid, did you ever take a magnifying glass out into the sun and burn leaves? If so, you probably remember that when the focused sunlight coming through the lens was refracted and concentrated to a small spot, the energy available there was truly remarkable. Guess what? You have a lens just like that in your eye. If you look at the sun, your eye-lens will concentrate the sun's light and focus it to a very small spot on the back of your retina. This can cause permanent eye damage or blindness. Additionally, there are no pain sensors back there so you won't even know it's happening!

Have I scared the willies out of you?

Good!

Looking during an eclipse is is neither more nor less dangerous that looking any other time. It is just that people think that it is less dangerous and do it a lot, then when they catch a little bit of the sun they can have serious damage.

Answer 3

When the sun is at its zenith, high vertically above you in the sky, the amount of UV rays are much more intense as the distance through the atmosphere is thinner, and more UV is getting through to your eye. More than when the sun is setting, the rays are travelling through the atmosphere at an angle, thus the thickest part of the atmosphere in relation to your eyes, and most of the light is asorbed, with only the yellow - red end of the spectrum reaches your eye, and it can slowly adjust to the dimming light. However, an eclipse makes it go darker and when your eye has reacted, it is suddenly bright again, before your iris can close to protect your eye. Also the little light you do get has the full spectrum including UV - you are effectively looking directly at the sun in what is most likely a time of day when it is brightest. . Eclipses on the horizon are similar to an early sunset, and you would not be able to see much going on, due to the greater distance between you and the moon. Since our moon is in orbit around the earth, you would also have to be on a line with the total eclipse to get this reaction. being above the zone or below the zone of total eclipse, would only give you a corona effect of dimness, and a particial eclipse, which at such a distance would not be really noticable.

Answer 4

I think it has something to do with the diffraction of light. But first, you have to understand that the shorter the wavelength, the more energy is packed into it.

During a total eclipse or just during the afternoon, the sun shining directly at the earth at your position seems white. However, everywhere else is blue because the blue light wavelengths are hitting air molecules. The air molecules absorbs the blue wavelength light and the scatters the blue light in all directions. Longer wavelengths (red, orange etc) are not absorbed as well as blue light. So in fact, if you can somehow filter blue from your vision, you'll see other colors.

Now, looking at the white sun is bad because the light is full of energy. Like the air molecules, your eyes contain lens that also bend light and the reason it bends light is to focus it to a single point at the back of your eye so that it becomes an image. With that much energy focusing at one spot, you risk burning your eyes.

During a sunset, the light has to travel farther distance and the short wavelength light is scattered from hitting so many air molecules in the higher atmosphere before it gets to you. Hence, the colors you see are the what are the longer wavelengths like red and such. That is also why back then, when developing photo film, it is done in a red room because red light contains so much less energy that it doesn't ruin the film.

Answer 5

It's really not dangerous to look at the sun during a total eclipse. It's just that it's hard to view and if you look for too long it soon wont be totally covered. And an annular "total" ecilpse of course doesn't totally cover it anyway.

At sunset (you'll notice less so at sunrise) it is not hard to look at the sun because the dust in the thick atmosphere you look through reduces the radiation reaching your eye.

You should never stare at the sun under any circumstances though.

Answer 6

If you go to a place where there is little air pollution, even the setting sun is uncomfortably bright.

A total eclipse lasts just minutes, but that is long enough for your pupils to open wide in the temporary darkeness. When the sun appears again from behind the moon, it is sudden and takes your open pupils by surprise.

I would advise never looking at the sun, any time.

Answer 7

None of these answers seem to be dealing directly with the question.

Your pupils in your eye open wider when it is dark, therefor admitting more light and exposing more of your retina to ultraviolet radiation (which causes a sunburn inside your eye).

When you normally look at the sun, your pupils get smaller and you involuntarily squint, reducing the amount of damaging rays that enter into your eye.

During an eclipse, your eyes think that it is dark, so they open wider, admitting more of the dangerous invisible UVA & UVB rays.

Ultraviolent light is invisible.

Answer 8

the light from the total eclipse is much stronger then watching the sun set.

Answer 9

Its never a good idea to look at the sun.Having said that...
astronomers use special filters when viewing the sun.The reason
why we can look at the sun while it sets is the atmosphere acts
as a sort of filter especially at the angles involved during sunsets.

Answer 10

That's because when the Sun is eclipsed, your eyes allow in more light, and the Sun may "sneak attack" you, leaving you bathed in sunlight while your eyes are still in "night-vision" mode.