OT Sunspots

Mikael Seierup said:

Couple of nice ones visible to the naked eye. If the naked eye is wearing proper eclipse sun
protection glasses that is!

Or you can point a telescope or binoculars and hold a while piece of paper behind the eyepiece, say
5 to 10 inches away. The image of the sun will be projected onto the paper. DO NOT LOOK THROUGH THE
TELESCOPE/BINOCULARS. Look AT the projection on the paper.

Do NOT improvise a filter. It's the infrared that damages your eye, and you can't tell by looking at
a filter if it's opaque to infrared. If you don't own a filter that's sold as a naked-eye solar
filter, use the projection method.

Ken Kobayashi [email hidden] solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jppersonalOpen ↗

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Ken Kobayashi

BOn Sun said:

Couple of nice ones visible to the naked eye. If the naked eye is wearing proper eclipse sun
protection glasses that is!

Or you can point a telescope or binoculars and hold a while piece of paper behind the eyepiece, say
5 to 10 inches away. The image of the sun will be projected onto the paper. DO NOT LOOK THROUGH THE
TELESCOPE/BINOCULARS. Look AT the projection on the paper.

Do NOT improvise a filter. It's the infrared that damages your eye, and you can't tell by looking at
a filter if it's opaque to infrared. If you don't own a filter that's sold as a naked-eye solar
filter, use the projection method.

Ken Kobayashi [email hidden] solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jppersonalOpen ↗ [/B]

Are the sunspots significantly more intense than the sun normally is?

And if so, in the IR or any other spectrum?

meb said:

Ken Kobayashi said:

Mikael Seierup said:

Couple of nice ones visible to the naked eye. If the naked eye is wearing proper eclipse sun
protection glasses that is!

Or you can point a telescope or binoculars and hold a while piece of paper behind the eyepiece,
say 5 to 10 inches away. The image of the sun will be projected onto the paper. DO NOT LOOK
THROUGH THE TELESCOPE/BINOCULARS. Look AT the projection on the paper. Do NOT improvise a
filter. It's the infrared that damages your eye, and you can't tell by looking at a filter if
it's opaque to infrared. If you don't own a filter that's sold as a naked-eye solar filter, use
the projection method. Ken Kobayashi [email hidden] solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jpkobayashOpen ↗
i/personal/solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jppersonalOpen ↗

Are the sunspots significantly more intense than the sun normally is?

And if so, in the IR or any other spectrum?

--

Quoted message said:

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Posted via cyclingforums.com cyclingforums.comcyclingforums.comOpen ↗

The problem isn't the darker sunspots, it's the main disk of the sun. Projecting an image with a
telescope or binoculars is fairly safe for you eyes, but there is some chance of damage to the scope
or binoculars. A proper solar filter on the front of the scope protects both the scope and the eyes.
Projection with a pinhole is safe and cheap, but you may have too much sharpness lost from
diffraction to see the sunspots.

Dave Lehnen

"He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he
looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the
country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of
those boxes with a pinhole in it."--- From High School Essay Metaphors and Analogies

Ken Kobayashi said:

Or you can point a telescope or binoculars and hold a while piece of paper behind the eyepiece,
say 5 to 10 inches away. The image of the sun will be projected onto the paper. DO NOT LOOK
THROUGH THE TELESCOPE/BINOCULARS. Look AT the projection on the paper.

Do NOT improvise a filter. It's the infrared that damages your eye, and you can't tell by looking
at a filter if it's opaque to infrared. If you don't own a filter that's sold as a naked-eye solar
filter, use the projection method.

Ken Kobayashi [email hidden] solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jppersonalOpen ↗

meb said:

Are the sunspots significantly more intense than the sun normally is?

And if so, in the IR or any other spectrum?

No, those are the standard precautions for looking at the sun. The sun is always dangerous to stare
at, but unless there's something interesting going on (eclipse, naked-eye sunspot, etc) we're not
stupid enough to stare at it.

Ken Kobayashi [email hidden] solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jppersonalOpen ↗

For viewing solar eclipses, I rip out the innards of a floppy disk (The old
5.25" disks worked best, but a 3.5" would work too.) and view the sun through the mylar. I suppose
one could try taping this mylar onto the ends of binoculars for a better view.

Bill Anton

"Mikael Seierup" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Couple of nice ones visible to the naked eye. If the naked eye is wearing proper eclipse sun
protection glasses that is!

Mikael

Bill Anton said:

For viewing solar eclipses, I rip out the innards of a floppy disk (The old
5.25" disks worked best, but a 3.5" would work too.) and view the sun through the mylar. I suppose
one could try taping this mylar onto the ends of binoculars for a better view.

PLEASE don't recommend such a dangerous activity on a public forum. Some floppies may be safe to
use, but some transmit IR and you wouldn't know it by just looking at it. The retina cannot feel
heat or pain so you won't feel a thing until the radiation has burned a hole through your retina.
Combining it with binoculars will increase the danger by at least a factor of ten.

Just go out and buy a solar filter, they're cheap. You can usually buy one at a science museum, if
not they should know where you can get one. Welder's #14 glass is also safe to use, but not the
lighter and more common #12. Use anything else and you risk permanent damage to your eyes. If you
don't have the proper filter, use the projection method as I explained in a previous message.

Ken Kobayashi [email hidden] solarwww.mtk.nao.ac.jppersonalOpen ↗