It is Dangerous to Look at any Eclipse

The word "eclipse" means to hide. During a solar eclipse, part or all of the sun is hidden by the moon. In a lunar eclipse the moon hides in the shadow of the Earth. A solar eclipse is dangerous to view when any portion of the sun's light-emitting surface, called the photosphere, is visible to the eye. However, during the totality segment of any total solar eclipse, the moon's greater apparent size hides the sun's photosphere completely. This allows for visual inspection of the eclipsed sun with the unprotected eye or through telescopes or binoculars. The totality portion of an eclipse ends so rapidly that observers need to exercise caution when even the smallest amount of sun becomes visible. The dangers of viewing the sun when no eclipse is occurring are even greater than viewing a partially eclipsed sun because the entire disk of the sun is visible. However, more people are apt to want to view the sun during the partial phases of a solar eclipse because interest in observing the eclipsed sun is high. On the other hand, viewing the moon during any portion of a lunar eclipse poses no danger whatsoever. Observing the full moon is not dangerous with the eye or with instrumentation. Observing the full moon entering the Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse is equally safe.

The Sun will Explode at the End of its Lifetime

The sun may be considered to be a typical star, five billion years of age, about midway through its life. At present it is converting hydrogen into helium in its core and will continue to do so for the next five billion years. As fusion continues, the accumulation of helium ash in the sun's interior will cause the core to contract slowly and increase in temperature, thus augmenting the amount of hydrogen burning occurring in the core. This will cause the sun to become slightly larger, cooler, and more luminous. Near the end of its existence hydrogen burning will cease in the core and shift to a thin shell surrounding the sun's center where hydrogen fusion will continue supplying the core with ever more helium ash. This additional material will shrink the core making it even hotter, expanding the sun into a red giant star. At this time the sun will probably become variable, due to instabilities generated in its thin hydrogen burning shell. These instabilities will eventually cause the sun to shed its outer layers to reveal its inert, hot interior composed primarily of helium. At this point the sun will be called a white dwarf star. Its diameter will be approximately 10,000 miles.

Sunspots are Storms on the Sun

In one way sunspots are storms, but not in the traditional sense of peoples' conceptions of storms. They have nothing to do with any meteorological effects which may be occurring on the sun. Sunspots are very quiet regions on the sun's "surface," which is known as its photosphere. Here the convective mechanism for releasing the sun's heat has been dampened by an intensification of the sun? magnetic field in that region. The area called the sunspot has become cooler, thus making it appear darker against the brighter, hotter photosphere. The intense magnetic field causes the outward flow of plasma in the sunspot's vicinity to slow, thus causing the cooling and darkening of the area. In a very real sense, the high magnetic fields associated with spots could be called magnetic storms. It is in the vicinity of sunspots that other magnetically induced phenomena occur, such as the arcuate filaments of plasma that form in the sun? corona, known as prominences, or extremely energetic flares which can produce intense auroral displays on Earth and disrupt the transmission of electricity by inducing direct current flows in transmission lines.