Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!agate!eos!jbm
From: jbm@eos.UUCP (Jeffrey Mulligan)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Seeing UV
Message-ID: <685@eos.UUCP>
Date: 9 May 88 23:02:08 GMT
References: <5044@cup.portal.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, California
Lines: 16

+ But what makes me curious is that every "black light" I've ever seen
+ has a peculiar quality to it that I never see in any other kind of
+ illumination. Hard to describe but it looks very specular, somewhat
+ like laser illumination of normal surfaces, and it always looks a little
+ fuzzy, possibly as if it were out of focus. When I ask other people if
+ they perceive anything like this, they look at me funny.

Ultraviolet radiation causes the lens of the eye to flouresce.
This would produce a diffuse illumination of the entire retinal image,
but the effect would probably be more of a soft-focus effect,
(sharp edges with a fuzzy overlay) rather than out and out blurring.

-- 

	Jeff Mulligan (jbm@ames-aurora.arpa)
	NASA/Ames Research Ctr., Mail Stop 239-3, Moffet Field CA, 94035
	(415) 694-5150