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A diagram showing the (exaggerated) deflection of light as it passes near the Sun. The Sun is represented as a yellow sphere deforming a flat sheet to indicate spacetime curvature. The deformation of the sheet is apparent from the fact that gridlines drawn on the sheet bend under the sun, as if it was creating a depression. A curved ray shows the actual trajectory of light from the star arriving at Earth, while a straight ray indicates the apparent trajectory we assign.

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A diagram showing the (exaggerated) deflection of light as it passes near the Sun. The Sun is represented as a yellow sphere deforming a flat sheet to indicate spacetime curvature. The deformation of the sheet is apparent from the fact that gridlines drawn on the sheet bend under the sun, as if it was creating a depression. A curved ray shows the actual trajectory of light from the star arriving at Earth, while a straight ray indicates the apparent trajectory we assign.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/364/939/919/348/323/original/faffd53096e15dc2.jpeg

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Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 06-Nov-2023 18:08:53 UTC Robert McNees
in reply to

The full moon covers about half a degree on the sky. There are 60 arcminutes per degree, 60 arcseconds per arcminute. So 2 arcseconds is about 1/1000 of the angular width of the moon!
This is a very small effect, greatly exaggerated in the diagram below.
Image: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Relativ/grel.html

In conversation about a year ago from mastodon.social permalink