Question about the viewscreen

[t_smitts]

Something that just occurred to me recently.

If you want episodes like "Heart of Glory" or "Contagion", we see characters like Picard and Worf squinting at explosions on the bridge viewscreen. That sort of implies that the screen is a bright enough light source in its own right to literally convey the brightness you'd experience from, say looking at an explosion through a window (and as opposed to watching it on a TV screen).

That doesn't seem to be the case all the time. Nobody's shutting their eyes and looking away when they show a solar flare, for instance, in "Relics" or the star in "Tin Man". Is there some sort of "dimmer" that they put on when they anticipate getting close to a star, but don't keep on all the time?

What do you think?

 

[Timo]

No doubt all sorts of filters can be applied. In "Symbiosis", Picard calls for a very specific one - a blanking over of the star's photosphere with a black disk.

Why the heroes sometimes prefer to squint is no doubt up to personal preferences. The filter may prevent the sort of brightness that would actually harm the eyes of the crew, but it won't autonomously make the crew comfortable unless they specifically ask for it.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TheGoodStuff]

Something that just occurred to me recently.

If you want episodes like "Heart of Glory" or "Contagion", we see characters like Picard and Worf squinting at explosions on the bridge viewscreen. That sort of implies that the screen is a bright enough light source in its own right to literally convey the brightness you'd experience from, say looking at an explosion through a window (and as opposed to watching it on a TV screen).

That doesn't seem to be the case all the time. Nobody's shutting their eyes and looking away when they show a solar flare, for instance, in "Relics" or the star in "Tin Man". Is there some sort of "dimmer" that they put on when they anticipate getting close to a star, but don't keep on all the time?

What do you think?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. I assume the screen will shield the eyes from potentially damaging light [in the case of a sun] but won't do anything for an explosion. For example, have you never watched a movie that has a particularly bright scene/explosion and squinted your eyes accordingly? Sometimes, also, a squint can be a reflex to a sudden change in contrast. I.E looking at the blackness of space with a ship on it to a sudden bright white explosion against the black back-drop could also trigger you to squint.