It was kind of hazy, but still fairly bright sun. Also the other speculation that I had was that because this was a super soft variety of toilet paper that it dispersing the light as it went into it - also maybe there is a chemical that they add to it? Plus this was only a 2-3 inch magnifying glass. So many factors. I will definitely experiment some more with it as it is pretty fun even if I don't figure it out for sure.