Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Root
I don't know the mainstream view, but my view, strongly shaped by
someone here on BAUT (you, maybe??) a few months ago, is that the
light is indeed lensed in such a way as to make the source appear larger.
Prior to my epiphany, I had guessed exactly the opposite: that any
object falling into a black hole would be gravitationally lensed so as to
appear smaller than its distance would suggest it should appear. I was
told this was wrong, for the reason you describe, and after drawing a
couple of diagrams like yours, saw that the lensing should produce a
magnification.
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Another approach to the same result: consider a point source (eg distant star) geometrically close to but outside the closer star's cone of occlusion. Gravity causes the photons on this trajectory to fall into the closer star, so it is in fact occluded. What does the observer looking along this line of sight if not the remote object? the occluding star of course, so the occluding star must subtend a greater angle than implied by geometry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Root
The light bending from the Sun has been observed and measured, not
just predicted by theory, but I've never actually seen it referred to as
magnifying. I think it should be referred to that way.
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Gravitational magnification, as special case of gravitational lensing. Seems logical to me.