Name:https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=SzCKPbg5QRg
Outcome: I can recognize that eyes can be damaged by bright lights and that one should not look at the Sun—
either directly or with binoculars or telescopes.

Instructions: Follow along with the video and use the words from the black
boxes to fill in the blanks for each paragraph.

If you look at the Sun for too long, it will damage your eyeballs. Sir Isaac Newton would wait

in a dark room, so his pupils would dilate. Then he used one eye to look at the reflection of the Sun in

a mirror just to see if it would create some kind of cool after-

safest, months, image in his vision when he looked away. He ended up seeing
Sun, vision circles and colors so he repeated the experiment two more
problems, times. The lights and colors stayed in his vision for months.
damage, He wasn’t the only one that ended up with vision problems
eyeballs, light, because of the Sun. Giovanni Cassini, the 17th century
reflection, Sun
astronomer who studied Saturn, also complained of vision

problems from observing the Sun early in his career. Galileo studied the Sun by shining the light

through a pinhole onto another surface. That is still one of the safest and simplest ways to observe the

Sun.

Sunlight can be dangerous because of all the ultraviolet radiation it has. A little bit of that UV

from the Sun can hurt your eyes. Unlike your skin, your cornea is transparent and allows UV light to

pass into other parts of your eye and it can damage each part in different ways.

1
 Cataracts is caused by looking at the Sun and is invasive transparent,
tissue growth that makes
dangerous, hurt,
vision cloudy and eventually

permanent, cause blindness. Looking

damage, eye
Sun, directly at the Sun can
actually damage the eyes resulting in blurry dark or even lost vision
blindness,
and that can be permanent. Like cataracts, blind spots in the center
UV, bright,
of the field of vision (macular degenerations) can come from UV
Sun, damage over time since we live in a world lit by the Sun , the most
sunglass you can really do is to wear UV rated sunglasses and do not look at
anything too bright.

Never,
directly,
Sun,
sunglasses,
telescopes,
magnifying,
burn, eyes,
2
reflection,
reflecting,
emitting
 In general just NEVER look DIRECTLY at the SUN. NOT through sunglasses, NOT
through camera filters. Especially do NOT look at the Sun through telescopes, binoculars or other
magnifying devices. Telescopes and binoculars will concentrate the Sun’s light then burn your eyes,
which makes a lot of sense if you’ve ever seen someone focus sunlight through a magnifying glass to
start a fire. Even looking at the Sun’s reflection can be bad. Some materials, like water, glass, snow and
sand, can be such efficient reflectors, the UV light bouncing off of them will still damage your eyes.
It’s usually ok to moongaze since the moon is reflecting the Sun’s rays, not emitting its own light.

Answer Key
If you look at the Sun for too long, it will damage your eyeballs. Sir Isaac Newton would wait in a dark
room, so his pupils would dilate. Then he used one eye to look at a reflection of the Sun in a mirror just to see
if it would create some kind of cool
after image in his vision This doesn’t mean that you can never see the Sun when he looked
away. though. You just have to protect yourself first. He ended up
seeing circles and
colors
Some people use welding goggles or solar filters, so he repeated
the lenses, covered with a thin layer of Chromium experiment two
more alloy or aluminium which blocks the most of the times. The
lights and colors
light, but even these can fail. Welding goggles
stayed in his vision for
aren’t designed for sun gazing and solar filters can months. His
eyes get damaged. The safest way to look at the Sun is eventually did
go probably still the 16th century pinhole projector. back to normal
but he ended up with a
Oh Galileo! Four centuries later and his ideas are
sunlight phobia. He wasn’t the only
one that ended up with still helping us out. vision problems
because of the Sun. Giovanni
Cassini, the 17th century astronomer
who studied Saturn, also complained of vision problems from observing the Sun early in his career. Galileo
studied the Sun by shining the light through a pinhole onto another surface. That is still one of the safest,
simplest ways to observe the Sun.
Sunlight is mostly dangerous because of all the ultraviolet radiation is has and just a little bit of that UV
can hurt your eyes. Unlike your skin, your cornea is transparent and allows some of UV light, called UVA
radiation to pass into other parts of your eye and it can damage each of them in different ways.
Cataracts is caused by looking at the Sun and is invasive tissue growth that makes vision cloudy and
eventually blindness. Looking directly at the Sun can actually damage the eyes resulting in blurry dark or even
lost vision and that can be permanent. Like cataracts, blind spots in the center of the field of vision (macular
degenerations) can come from UV damage over time since we live in a world lit by the Sun, the most you can
really do is to wear UV rated sunglass and do not look at anything too bright.
In general just never look directly at the Sun. NOT through sunglasses, Not through camera filters, and
especially not through telescopes, binoculars or other magnifying devices. Those things will concentrate the
Sun’s light then burn your eyes, which makes a lot of sense if you’ve ever seen someone focus sunlight

3
through a magnifying glass to start a fire. Even looking at the Sun’s reflection can be bad. Some materials, like
water, glass, snow and sand, can be such efficient reflectors, the UV light bouncing off of them will still damage
your eyes. It’s usually ok to moongaze since the moon is reflecting the Sun’s rays, not emitting its own light.
This doesn’t mean that you can never see the Sun though. You just have to protect yourself first. Some
people use welding goggles or solar filters, lenses, covered with a thin layer of Chromium alloy or aluminium
which blocks the most of the light, but even these can fail. Welding goggles aren’t designed for sun gazing and
solar filters can get damaged. The safest way to look at the Sun is probably still the 16th century pinhole
projector. Oh Galileo! Four centuries later and his ideas are still helping us out.