Why is an eclipse more harmful to look at than just the sun?
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ANSWERS: 1
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Here is an article from NASA on the subject: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/safety.html And a summary from Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun ): "Partial solar eclipses are hazardous to view because the eye's pupil is not adapted to the unusually high visual contrast: the pupil dilates according to the total amount of light in the field of view, not by the brightest object in the field. During partial eclipses most sunlight is blocked by the Moon passing in front of the Sun, but the uncovered parts of the photosphere have the same surface brightness as during a normal day. In the overall gloom, the pupil expands from ~2 mm to ~6 mm, and each retinal cell exposed to the solar image receives about ten times more light than it would looking at the non-eclipsed sun. This can damage or kill those cells, resulting in small permanent blind spots for the viewer.[36] The hazard is insidious for inexperienced observers and for children, because there is no perception of pain: it is not immediately obvious that one's vision is being destroyed."
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