The Color of the Sun, Part II

We learned from the prior blog that the Sun is much too bright for normal viewing with our sensitive eyes. A white “color” results when we observe objects that are both extremely bright and bright at all or most visible wavelengths. Please allow me to elaborate a little more on this issue. [Hang in there.] This white result can be quite deceptive since its true color could be any color once we attenuate the object’s intensity to a light flux conducive to our normal eyesight. The reason for this blinding effect is due to the behavior of our color receptors (color cones) when they are subjected to excessive light. We have about 6 or 7 million of these cones in each retina. Our cones come in three types – surprisingly, there are four types of cones for some birds – and they are often designated as our red, green, and blue color cones due to their spectral sensitivity to the respective wavelengths of light. Our trichromatic eyesight gets quite complicated since there is much overlap of their sensitivity with one another. Fortunately, the brain handles it amazingly well. Read More...

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