# Could I have seen sunspots with the naked eye? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2002, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700 "2002-09-26T11:36:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/1 "2002-09-26T11:36:36Z")
A couple of weeks ago I was on the west coast of England and went for a walk along the cliffs in the evening, hoping to watch the sunset. Unfortunately there was a lot of haze along the horizon, so the sun progressively got fainter and fainter as it dipped, and disappeared altogether before reaching the horizon. Anyway, before it vanished, the sun got faint enough that it was easy to look straight at it without any discomfort - it just looked big and red and not much brighter than the surrounding haze. Looking at it, my girlfriend and I both noticed a small black dot just off-centre - it was pretty much at the limit of vision, so you could see it better if you looked just to the side of it and it would tend to vanish if you looked straight at it. However we both agreed that it was there and in the same place, and it stayed in the same place relative to the sun as it sank over the course of several minutes. Does anyone know what this could have been? Are sunspots big enough that I could have seen one with the naked eye? I even wondered if it could have been Mercury right in front of the sun, but surely that would be much too small to see… ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/2 "2002-09-26T11:41:41Z")
Darn, I’m answering my own question here - [http://www.cpither.freeserve.co.uk/solar\_news.htm](http://www.cpither.freeserve.co.uk/solar_news.htm) I think it was September 15 that I was there, and what I saw seems to match up pretty well with the Sep 14 picture on this site, in fact the spot had moved slightly further to the right as you’d expect. So, anyone else noticed these? I see this site says it’s “getting near naked-eye visibility” - do I just have very good eyesight or what? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/3 "2002-09-26T11:46:39Z")
Don’t stare into the sun, not even with sunglasses on. You’ll go blind. You _may_ also be doing _other_ things that’ll make you go blind, but that’s nothing I wanna hear 'bout. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![cantara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@cantara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cantara)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/4 "2002-09-26T11:51:57Z")
I had seen sunspots a number of years ago, and could not believe that that is what I was seeing. It was mid-morning and a very foggy day was in the process of burning off. The sun was visible through the haze and was bright enough I was wearing sunglasses. When I looked at the sun I could easily see dark spots, and watched them for a few seconds to make sure it wasn’t something else (like dirt on my sunglasses). It was a series of very distinct shapes in the lower right portion. Unfortunately this was in 1990, and I didn’t have the resources to find the current solar activity such as you have already found. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/5 "2002-09-26T11:54:14Z")
As I said, I only looked at it when it was nearly obliterated by lots of haze. It hardly looked any brighter than the rest of the sky - just a dull red disc. Ten minutes later it had sunk so far into the haze that it had vanished altogether, despite still being one or two sun-diameters above the horizon. I figured that if the colour was shifted that far towards the red end of the spectrum then virtually no UV light would be getting through. Surely that can’t be dangerous? Or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/6 "2002-09-26T11:55:57Z")
And to **Cantara** - as you can see from the graph on the site I mentioned, 1990 was at the previous peak in sun activity, so yes there should have been some good spots then too. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/7 "2002-09-26T11:58:46Z")
Yes, naked-eye sunspots are not uncommon. I’ve seen a couple myself. If the sun is low enough so that you can look at it without discomfort (i.e. without squinting), I don’t think there is any danger in doing so. ---
**Author:** ![I\_am\_Sparticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@I\_am\_Sparticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_am_Sparticus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/8 "2002-09-26T16:39:44Z")
Do not look at the sun without welder’s glasses. While you can glance over it for a small fraction of a second, the temptation will be to linger longer while looking for what you want. During this time the intense light can use your eye’s lens to burn a hole in your retina. Don’t do it. Even when on the horizon, which does have more atmosphere to go though, but not that much more. Think this through crew: the sun is so damn bright that it lights everything up light “daylight”. The whole earth facing it all at once. And if the earth was a billion times bigger so that it’s orbit completely blocked out the sun’s light from all angles, it would be just as bright. That’s a lot of energy for your little retina cells to absord. They aren’t up to it. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/9 "2002-09-26T16:50:53Z")
Just to back up what others have said: DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN WITH THE NAKED EYE. Everyone knows about the dangers of looking at the sun during an eclipse. However, the same people who will avoid the sun during an eclipse will stare at the sun when its out in full strength. It’s not the eclipse itself that’s dangerous; there’s nothing inherent in the eclipse that makes it blinding. It’s the fact that the eclipse makes it possible to stare at the sun for an extended period that makes it dangerous. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/10 "2002-09-26T18:48:06Z")
I don’t understand all these people saying you shouldn’t ever look at the sun. Obviously I wouldn’t look at it normally, or during a partial eclipse (even the diamond-ring phase of a total eclipse is dangerous - I have seen two total eclipses and am going to see a third in December, and always use eclipse viewers). What I am talking about is a case where the sun was almost entirely obscured by haze, so that it appears very faint. Look at [this picture](http://eclipse.span.ch/9fe99sset4.jpg) to see the sort of effect I mean. Can somebody tell me how this would possibly harm my eyes? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/11 "2002-09-26T19:44:49Z")
Mister… those had bertter not be sissors you’re running with! ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/12 "2002-09-26T21:26:18Z")
What’s surprising is that it’s even legal to purchase pointy scissors in the U.S. anymore! ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/13 "2002-09-26T23:15:39Z")
I’ve seen them, too. Here’s this [blast from the past](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=39695&highlight=sunspots) thread. And **r\_k** , it was on a really foggy morning, so the sun was not bright at all. That’s what made it such an odd view; big rising sun with a large black spot. I was glancing at it while driving, so didn’t stare for any length of time. But, the general caution is best heeded. ---
**Author:** ![PolskiKing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@PolskiKing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PolskiKing)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/14 "2002-09-26T23:18:35Z")
no, you didnt next question ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2002, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-i-have-seen-sunspots-with-the-naked-eye/129700/15 "2002-09-26T23:56:27Z")
Uh, thanks for that, **PolskiKing** , but I think we’ve already established that what I saw _was_ almost certainly a sunspot. And cheers for that link **elelle** - glad to know I’m not the only one seeing things…