why did the eclipse not darken proportionally?
why did the eclipse not darken proportionally?
I was in ~80% zone. It wasn't 80% darker. It was maybe 25% darker.
Web searching that phrase just gives me times and such.
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Your eyes adjust to the available light to a radical degree. If you are in a room with 5 lights bulbs and turn all but one off, it will probably only feel 25%-50% darker.
I was trying to make my bedroom as dark as possible so I could sleep in. I turn off the lights, it felt dark for like 2 seconds until my eyes adjusted. Then there was all this light coming in around my curtains, it felt just as bright as before. So I tapped those to the wall. Man it was nice and dark for a few more seconds then my eyes adjusted and there was all this light coming in from under the doors. So I put a towel in front of that. Then it was dark, but I could still see a little because it turns out my curtain tapping was not great AND there was light coming in around the doors. My point being, if you are young and healthy your eyes can be really good at adjusting to low light conditions without you even noticing.
And in 20 minutes, hopefully you were asleep. Otherwise, you'd likely be at full dark adaptation and find new light sources. Your pupils take seconds to adjust, but it takes 20 minutes for your eyes to replenish the rhodopsin, the chemical that amplifies your retinas. It gets bleached in seconds, which is why it takes so long to go back to full adaptation. Red light does not bleach rhodopsin, hence it's use in dark activities. That's also why "pirates" used eye patches: one eye kept it's rhodopsin to see below deck.
Someone needs a sleep mask!
Nowadays, I put that on and I'm out like a light!
It's also that the natural resting position of our eye lids when fully relaxed isn't fully shut (that requires muscle power). Rather the relaxed state is almost-but-not-fully shut which let's in more light than expected.