Thread: 1919 arthur edington question

i was thinking about how objects bend light and i realised theres something i dont quite get. and its easiest to ask in relation to 1919 experiment.

when arthur was looking at the star behing the sun, he would observe the star in a slightly different place to what it should be.

so lets say if that star is directly EXACTLY center of behind the sun, how is it determined which way the light bends to say which way direction it appears to be?

btw. try to keep it in laymans language

The Eddington observations were for stars NOT blocked by the sun, but those with a line of sight passing close to the sun and visible during an eclipse.

Originally Posted by jfoldbar

i was thinking about how objects bend light and i realised theres something i dont quite get. and its easiest to ask in relation to 1919 experiment.

when arthur was looking at the star behing the sun, he would observe the star in a slightly different place to what it should be.

so lets say if that star is directly EXACTLY center of behind the sun, how is it determined which way the light bends to say which way direction it appears to be?

btw. try to keep it in laymans language

In the case where the star where "exactly" on the other side of the mass bending the light, and the observer was right distance from the mass, then the observer would see an "Einstein ring", with the light coming from all around the mass. But this will take circumstances that don't occur when viewing star on the other side of the Sun. For a star exactly opposite the Sun from us, its light would not be bent enough to reach us, and we would be in the "shadow" the Sun casts for this star. The closer that star is to the Sun, the further this shadow extends from the Sun, and it could never less than ~14 times the distance Pluto orbits from the Sun in length.

janus.
thankyou for such a great explanation.
this is what one would expect, but didnt realise it was real