When is it safe to look at the Sun

Forums General Discussion Solar eclipses from elsewhere in the solar system When is it safe to look at the Sun

#584559
Peter Anderson
Participant

Hello Bill, Whilst your mathematics are good, the problem as I see it is that the visible disk will remain the same brightness and so has the potential for the same sort of damage if you look at the sun. However, and obviously the heat factor transmitted within the eye will be much reduced if the solar disc has a reduced angular size.  Taking my argument ad absurdium, you could reason it is dangerous to even look at the stars, but in those cases their stellar disc is not resolvable and instead you are examining a disc produced by your eye or telescope optics that is many times the actual stellar disc diameter and so a mere tiny fraction of its true surface brightness.

I think we need an expert to provide some considered and professional advice on the subject.  I feel like an ancient Greek trying to form a hypothesis just by reasoning alone.