The sun / Question ?

[Essex Stargazer]

I have seen several photos of the Sun

And read the debates regarding colour ?

I have seen white - Red - Orange photos , all good

But my question is , What is the Suns natural Colour ?

[Mark at Beaufort]

The Sun is a yellow star. You might see different colours because of the filters that are used. Mylar I believe gives a white/blue colour whereas Thousands Oaks filter makes it look yellow.

This might explain it better

Main sequence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mark

[JB80]

White it seems.

Color of the Sun

Then again the comment in the guestbook says different.

[Photosbykev]

It's about 5780K but pretty close to pure white.

[Mark at Beaufort]

Well you learn something everyday. However, I did find this -

What color is the Sun from space? It is whiter in colour with a slight tint of yellow. Compared to the Sun being observed from Earth, it would look more whitish and bright. That is because there is no atmosphere to disseminate the blue and the background from space is black. There is no contrast to make it look more yellow.

The Sun has many colours and because of the intensity of those colours our eyes can’t take them all on that is why it appears white. But because it has strong lines of yellow it gives that slight yellowish tint. So it is safe to say that the Sun is white with a yellowish tint.

Mark

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The white point of the eye is variable, depending on the dominant illumination. In sunlight, the sunlight is white (duh), whereas if the eye is adapted to incandescent light at 3200K, sunlight is decidedly blue. In the light of Sirius (at 10,000K) sunlight is yellow. At night, the brain judges Sirius as white and Capella (similar to sunlight) as yellow.

In summary, one could say that it does not make sense to ask what colour the sun (or anything else) is, as colour is an interpretation given by the brain to spectral content, and that not in any absolute way, but depending on its surroundings. Colour is all in the mind .

[Dr. Phibes]

Assuming the Sun to be a perfect black body at a temperature of approx 5800K, it emits radiation which peaks across the narrow band of visual wavelengths. The actual highest point of the peak is in the 'yellow' wavelength. So the Sun is theoretically yellow.

However, this peak in yellow is not sufficiently large to be detected as a distinct separation from the other visible wavelenghts, by the colour receptors in the human eye. Rather the eye sees all of the colours as being emitted at equal intensity, making white light. So whe perceive the sun to be white.

[Andrew*]

In an ordinary telescope with a genuine "white light" filter, you see a perfectly white disc - the true colour of the sun.

When you see photos of the sun in red or orange, those will be taken at the specific wavelength of Hydrogen Alpha, which is a deep red, and shows the layer of the sun's atmosphere just above the bright white/tint of yellow surface. When you view through a Hydrogen alpha (Ha) telescope, the sun really does look bright red!

Then you get sun pictures presented in violet as well, that's something different again I don't quite understand!

Andrew

[Merlin66]

Over millions of years our eyes have adapted and now "accept" that the noon sun is white.

I'm sure if we had developed on a planet orbiting a red giant the redness would still appear "white" to us......

[Ags]

K-line photos of the sun are from the near UV, so are typically shown in purple/violet.

[Ags]

I think that the sun is still white even if you are color-blind, which just goes to show the brain plays fast and loose with color balance.

[ronin]

It is only "white" because that is how our eyes see it. In effect we say that an equal amount of Red+Green+Blue = White.

If another creature had a different spectral response then it would not be "white" to them.

If you saw white as say White = IR+Red+Green then our sun has an excess of Blue so would come out as a "Blue" star. Equally something that saw White = Green+Blue+UV would see the sun as Red.

The sun is White because over several million years that is how our eyes have evolved to see it. Colour is subjective not absolute.