What color does the Sun appear to be when you see it high above the horizon?

[not at night, from space, behind clouds or during volcanic activity ]

I want to say "it goes without saying not to stare at it", but safety is better stated than assumed.

You can oscillate your hands back and forth, opposite of each other, (raking your fingers across each other) to help cut some intensity.

[Note: do not use binoculars for this observation, as per the Harry Carry parody in SNL. ]


Also, I would like to know what color you thought it was prior to a more serious look. [I always thought it was yellow.]

[Edit: I suppose I would have been wiser to ask this during the daytime around here. :P . Looks like the Aussies get first crack at it. ]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

I look at Sun all the time #-o, I have a feeling that's why I had to get glasses...my eyesight deterioted pretty bad over the last couple of years, to the point which I could no longer make out any stars in the Pleadies from a non light-polluted sky.

For me it's always yellow, hardly any white at all. Kinda orange through a car window, though. :P

with regards

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I am a photograher, so light and the color of light is something I pay attention to.

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Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

What did you vote?

with regards

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It's always looked white to me.

Psi-less

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"Given only the ships and right sails for the heavenly space, there will also be men unafraid of the terrible distances."--Kepler, to Galileo

Where's the "blinding" option?

I've always stuck by the white light = white sun idea. When the sun is low on the horizon and looks yellow-orange, so does the light that's reflected off of everything.

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"The plan does not involve mayonaise."
"... I knew there was a catch."

You can't take the sky from me.

I see it as white. People tend to think of the sun as yellow because they are not normally looking at it during mid-day. When the sun is at less direct angles we may see it as yellow, orange, or red, and that is when we are usually looking at it. And we think of it as yellow because the books we grew up with showed it as yellow.

Mid-day light makes for bland color photographs, so I'll usually use a "warming" filter. The filter is slightly yellow and will make the colors in the photographs appear more vibrant. When shooting outdoor portraits or glamour during mid-day, I'll often also use a strobe or reflector to reduce some of the shadows created by sunlight. The diffused sunlight on an overcast day is nice to work with because the shadows are much softer, however an overcast sky usually tends to be somewhat blue and therefore needs a filter.

Morning and evening light is very nice for landscapes, however the yellowish light does not work well on some skin-tones, so once again filters may be needed for people pictures. In this case, a blue "cooling" fliter is often useful.

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Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

I went white white-yellow.

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"As for civilizations in general, they've given us the Pyramids, the moon landing, and African slavery amongst a few billion other things of some import."

White-yellow, but I know my sight perception is prone to interpretation, so my color sense is suspect (and then some) without direct comparison to a baseline.

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[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

You might be happy to learn that one of the more popular filters for use in outdoor photography is a Moose Filter.

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Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

He, he....made you look. :wink:

"Blinding" is right. The eye is incredible as it can work with a range of flux with a high end 100 trillion times that of the low end flux. Yet, the sun still ads "pain to this game". It is 1.5x brighter above our atmosphere. One author of a magazine article (claiming the sun to be greenish) stated an astronaut told him he saw the sun as extremely bright white. No surprise.

A strobe idea was born on this board. Known as SAD (Solar Attenuation Device), it reduced the flux by 99.9% and still the Sun was brillliant but still white.


[FWIW, SAD cost about 15 cents in materials to make so I'm saving it for the Smithsonian to recognize it as the cheapest astronomical instrument ever built and operated. Not that they should be intrested. :wink: ]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

You're right, that does appeal to me.

__________________
[Dr. Horrible]___________________________[Penny]
Listen close to everybody's heart________And you believe there's good in everybody's heart
And hear that breaking sound_____________Keep it safe and sound
Hopes and dreams are shattering apart____With hope you can do your part
And crashing to the ground_______________To turn a life around

Speaking of photography, another way of getting the sun's color as seen down here is by adjusting to off focus and using no clock drive on a region including a solar twin.

APOD has an example of this technique. Their image is of the southern cross which does include a G3 star but it is too faint to see in the image. :-? The stars shown are B and M stars mainly.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Yeah, good point. I was sorta thinking midway between horizon and zenith, should have read the question better. #-o

The only time I look at the sun at midday is to make sure I sneeze properly.

with regards

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All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

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Can I vote for "oww!!"?

CJSF

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

Are you one of those who sneezes whenever you walk into bright sunlight? I know I am :-? .

I hope others will register their vote. I am doing a seminar on the sun's color and would like to know how people see the sun's color.

So.....I want your colorful VOTE!! [insert Uncle Sam pointing here]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Are you one of those who sneezes whenever you walk into bright sunlight? I know I am :-? .

I hope others will register their vote. I am doing a seminar on the sun's color and would like to know how people see the sun's color.

So.....I want your colorful VOTE!! [insert Uncle Sam pointing here]

[Edit: But you can't vote twice and you must be alive. :wink: Actually, I am having horrible internet problems right now, possibly due to damage from a recent bad storm. :-? ]

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Yup. :P

I'd like to change my vote....from yellow to white (after looking at the sun today and getting all of my mates to do similarly to make sure I wasn't just mad :roll

with regards

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All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

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