By BILL ZECHMANSpecial to the StandardDelete - Merge UpFor the first time in their lives, hundreds of Warren County students recently got to look directly into the sun, the source of light, warmth and life itself on Earth.We are warned from our earliest childhood never to turn our unshielded eyes toward that giant fusion furnace in the sky, lest we destroy our sight by absorbing too much light energy in the one most delicate parts of our body, the retina at the back of the eye. A visiting astrophysicist from Vanderbilt University recently made it possible for local students to view the sun in complete safety.“Look closely for those spindly filaments swirling up from the edge of the disc,” Dr. Billy Teets told students peering through his portable telescope outfitted with a $12,000 precision solar filter. “Those prominences are several times bigger than the Earth,” he explained.Students were able to see not only the constant solar flares, but occasional sunspots as well.“I’ve heard there will be a super huge solar flare that will reach out and engulf the Earth.