Relativistic Aberration Angles Please click the link below to learn more about abberration. This animation shows how a fast moving telescope perceives light from a star that is many light years away. The telescope moves along the x axis at speed v while the star remains along the y axis since it is so far away. The speed of the light from the star is c, the speed of light in a vacuum. Since the speed of the telescope is less than c, the observer on the telescope sees the star at angle ArcTan(v/c), so the star looks like it is advanced to the right of the y axis. The angle that is obaserved is less than 45 degrees since v/c<=1. The program is set up so that the light emitter sequentially releases either photons or wavefronts at appropriate time so that these intercept the top of the telescope as it goes by. It is like we have an extended source at a very great distance from the telescope. The program does not include effects of the second order relativistic parameter, gamma. Except for speeds very near the speed of light the first order effect greatly overwhelms the second order effect. The learner should confirm that the photons and wavefronts are moving only vertically even though they may appear to move along a diagonal line.
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beta Single Step Show Wave Fronts Show Photons