You CAN Look at the Sun*!

You've all been warned: "Never stare at the sun" for obvious reasons. Well...I looked at it this morning, and my eyes are fine!

Do not worry, for I have indeed seen (in this context, meaning "beheld") the sun before, yet the sight that my retinas beheld (see? I mean...comprehend?) this morning (without burning into a crisp) was reminescent of a "Before, After" photo sequence of an overweight individual.


This first picture of the sun (during its setting stage) was taken with a low resolution camera on the LG Shine a while ago. Note the non-distinct area surrounding the presumed circle of the sun.

BEFORE













AFTER

The second high(er) resolution picture was taken by an iPhone 3GS with a "Camera Zoom" application. I will admit, that the iPhone 3GS' camera has a higher photographical quality than the aforementioned cellular telephone. However, the change is quite clear between the two photographs. The sun, when not obscured in the sky, does not appear to have a perfectly circular shape, but has "stuff" (light) surrounding it. When those stray rays of light are filtered by the cloud cover, a perfectly circular sun (I would venture as far as to say it appeared moon-like!) is revealed. For the sake of technicalists out there who are furious as to the unfitting description of "circular" in modification of "sun", I will clarify and state that the sun appears circular, yet is in actuality, a spherical entity.


For those who question if it was the moon I mistook for the sun, I wish to reassure and comfort by informing them that a couple moments later, we were driving through cloudless skies, and the sphere I saw in the same part of the sky now had lost its circular border.

To those who ask "Why should I care?" I answer "Nobody told you to read my blog, silly!"

*Warning: I do not know why I am saying this, but please oh please do not look at the sun directly when it's a clear blue sky with nothing to block your eyes, because it is a very idiotic action to take. I guess that's why some warning labels/warning people say "do not look directly at the sun". "Duhummm...buuut what if I use a mirrur?" asked the technicalist. "That's indirectly looking at the sun!"

When will people learn?