Why can you look at a sunrise or sunset for an extended period but can’t look at the sun in the middle of the sky for now than a second?
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The atmosphere is curved, and also not transparent
When the sun is directly above you, the amount of atmosphere between you and the sun is at its thinnest. Therefore, alot of the sun’s light is allowed through.
As the sun set, the amount of atmosphere you are looking through becomes thicker and thicker, blocking more light, and allowing you to stare at the sun.
It’s ultimately the same reason sunsets are red instead of blue.
If you are looking straight up at the sun, you are looking through less atmosphere than if you are looking at it on the horizon. All that extra atmosphere the sunlight travels through when it’s on the horizon means more light scatters away in the atmosphere. This results in less light overall making it all the way to your eyes (and it also happens that the light that does make it will be more red than any other colour, which is why sunrises and sunsets are red).
Technically you’re not supposed to look directly at the sunset or sunrise. The reason it’s less uncomfortable is that the light is passing through more of the atmosphere, scattering more light away from the disc.
Same reason why you can look at a lamp with a lampshade, but a bare bulb is uncomfortably bright.
There’s atmosphere in the way scattering and absorbing a large portion of sunlight when it’s at the horizon.
There’s a lot more air in the path to the sun during a sunrise/sunset which reduces the strength of the sunlight making it less extreme for the eyes. This is also where the sunset gets its red hue, the air absorbs more of the blue side of the spectrum which leaves more red. This effect is not that big when the sun is in the sky, but during sunset the increased path of air makes it more noticable.
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