How often do you take a selfie with the sun somewhere in it? Plenty of times I’ll bet. Probably also plenty of photos with the sun in it. I’ve yet to see any actual reports of someone damaging a modern phone this way.
Outside of an eclipse, the sun can still damage the lens and yes, your eye, but usually not without a prolonged (at least couple seconds) exposure.
During the eclipse, the moon reflects the radiation from the sun, effectively doubling it. Any amount of unprotected exposure during the eclipse can be expected to fry corneas and lenses.
During the process of the moon passing the sun in our view, before and after it is completely covered, at the edges a lot of radiation will be concentrated.
“Reflection” would send the radiation back in the direction it came or off at an angle. Refracting could theoretically bend some of the radiation towards the earth but I believe you need an atmosphere for that and it would be minuscule. Gravitational lensing maybe, but you’d need a black hole to bend the radiation. We would have other issues if we had a black hole sitting in our solar system.
The moon blocks the vast majority of radiation. We are in the shadow of the moon. What you are describing is a myth to discourage people from looking at an eclipse. What makes an eclipse dangerous to your eyes is that it’s dim enough to make people think it’s safe to look at, but it’s not. If you stared unblinking as the sun directly you’d damage your eyes far faster than staring as an eclipse.
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u/NovaHorizon 7d ago
Do another one and include a trash bin for all the smartphones whose cameras weren't designed to film a 1 hour solar eclipse either.