This happened maybe 10 years ago. (I could probably dig up the exact date if it’s important.) I was traveling with a co-worker in West Virginia. Around 10 a.m. we were driving (me in the passenger seat) in just enough clouds that the sun was not much more than a bright disc. With my polarized sunglasses I could look directly at the sun. It seemed to me that I could see sun spots. My co-worker was driving and other than noting that he too could look at the sun, he didn’t want to take his eyes off the road long enough to confirm the sun spots.
So are sun spots large enough to be visible with the naked eye? I looked several times and they didn’t appear to move so I don’t think it was floaters in my eyes or anything else.
Yes, sunspots visible to the naked eye are not uncommon. There was a very large one visible a couple years ago. I saw this one quite clearly with a pair of welding goggles. Sunspots were observed by Chinese astronomers by 800 BC and there is a drawing of sunspots in John of Worster’s chronicle in 1128.
If you do want to dig up the actual date, it would be simple to find a solar image for that date.
10 years ago would have been near the solar minimum, so there wouldn’t have been very many sunspots. But even near the minimum, large naked-eye sunspots can occur.
Good god, no. The only safe way to look directly at the sun is to use #14 welding glass, or a viewer specifically designed for solar viewing. Mylar viewers are cheap but somewhat dangerous because they can get torn or scratched and allow some sunlight through.
Get your welding goggles soon to avoid the rush for the August 2017 solar eclipse!
For what it’s worth, you can (and do, every day) briefly glance at the Sun without welder’s goggles. Of course, you always immediately look away, and if you didn’t, it would quickly become painful.
