3 ms·

Betelgeuse is not that close.

ggm 7y ago
No, but this whole "will I see a supernova in my lifetime" thing is very entertaining, until you go to massive unexpected gamma ray events: Its not the one you "see", its the one you don't see but coming our way from some event a long time ago (I am led to believe these things actually bleed out a bit, so the whole 'be along the axis the two spikes come out at, be very specific about when in the life of the GRB, this condition, that condition' make it all pretty unlikely) It was, basically, a joke. Nothing you see through an optical telescope by eye is going to burn your retina off a star, excluding the one we orbit. I did find my vision was degraded looking at Saturn in a 10" reflector: it is surprisingly bright. I was locally blind in the night light, after looking at the moon through binoculars.
- pantulis 7y ago
  Can you share more info (exposure time, etc.) about how that happened? How big was Saturn's shape through the reflector? I wouldnt have expected that to happen!
  - ggm 7y ago
    Degraded purely temporarily. Flashbulb effect in a dark room, lingering phosphene neon-blur overlay for 2-3 minutes. Not damaged forever, retinal burn. Sorry. bad language on my part. I do not believe you can damage eyes because of reflected sunlight off planets or moons, through a telescope. If somebody can find a fresnel lens fire-starter for moonlight, I'll learn to smoke midnight cigars to light them. But you definitely can suffer temporary light adaption loss, from the huge difference between what you see in the scope or binoculars, and what you see with full eyes, in the wide. It was 40 years ago, I wouldn't even know what kind of lens was on the eyescope. Saturn was maybe 1/5th of the visual field? Binoculars, 30x or 50x you're already looking at segments of the Moon, not the entire face I think.
pacman128 7y ago
The effect of a Betelgeuse supernova on Earth: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-betelgeuse-supernova_b_6583546 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-betelgeuse-supernova_b_65...

ggm 7y ago

No, but this whole "will I see a supernova in my lifetime" thing is very entertaining, until you go to massive unexpected gamma ray events: Its not the one you "see", its the one you don't see but coming our way from some event a long time ago (I am led to believe these things actually bleed out a bit, so the whole 'be along the axis the two spikes come out at, be very specific about when in the life of the GRB, this condition, that condition' make it all pretty unlikely) It was, basically, a joke. Nothing you see through an optical telescope by eye is going to burn your retina off a star, excluding the one we orbit. I did find my vision was degraded looking at Saturn in a 10" reflector: it is surprisingly bright. I was locally blind in the night light, after looking at the moon through binoculars.

pantulis 7y ago
Can you share more info (exposure time, etc.) about how that happened? How big was Saturn's shape through the reflector? I wouldnt have expected that to happen!
- ggm 7y ago
  Degraded purely temporarily. Flashbulb effect in a dark room, lingering phosphene neon-blur overlay for 2-3 minutes. Not damaged forever, retinal burn. Sorry. bad language on my part. I do not believe you can damage eyes because of reflected sunlight off planets or moons, through a telescope. If somebody can find a fresnel lens fire-starter for moonlight, I'll learn to smoke midnight cigars to light them. But you definitely can suffer temporary light adaption loss, from the huge difference between what you see in the scope or binoculars, and what you see with full eyes, in the wide. It was 40 years ago, I wouldn't even know what kind of lens was on the eyescope. Saturn was maybe 1/5th of the visual field? Binoculars, 30x or 50x you're already looking at segments of the Moon, not the entire face I think.

pacman128 7y ago

The effect of a Betelgeuse supernova on Earth: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-betelgeuse-supernova_b_6583546 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-betelgeuse-supernova_b_65...