Re: Actual photons?

From: sheep defender (sdsdsdsdsd_at_waithingforthelight.com)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2004 19:44:49 -0600

In article <7jhhj01eiak01ufpnronl1kub52gepdmtp@4ax.com>, Chris L Peterson
<clp@alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:

>On 3 Sep 2004 12:06:53 -0700, khatcat@hotmail.com (BigKhat) wrote:
>
>>One of the allures of amateur astronomy is to say that we're seeing
>>the "actual photons" from <pick your favorite deep sky object>. I was
>>thinking about this and wondering about the veracity of this
>>statement. Since most of us use reflectors or refractors with a
>>diagonal, I was wondering if it is the *same* photon that gets
>>reflected off of a mirror. Since I am scientifically challenged, I
>>don't know the answer. I also don't know if the question even makes
>>sense (is there such a thing as "sameness" in the quantum mechanical
>>world?).
>
>No, you don't see the actual photons. Refraction, reflection, scattering- these
>are all processes that on the quantum level result from photons being absorbed
>and re-emitted. This is true even for naked eye observing.
>
>But the stimulus in your brain still follows as a direct result of the
>properties of the photons that left the object, so philosophically, I think you
>may as well consider that you are seeing the original photons.
>
>_________________________________________________
>
>Chris L Peterson
>Cloudbait Observatory
>http://www.cloudbait.com

Yeah, and talking about photon reflecting and re-emission, all light from
stars (and galaxies) has travelled an additional million light years or so
farther than we commonly think, because of the random walk they take just
escaping from their source in their star's core.

The photon reaction(s) from our Sun which warm our face on a summer's day
is about 5 times older than the earliest Neanderthal, and has transversed
10 times the diameter of our galaxy to reach us.

Defender

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Adaptive Optics
    ... Chris L Peterson wrote: ... > when there aren't enough photons to get a good signal in the time interval ... The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/ ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Where Does Light Come From?
    ... Chris L Peterson wrote: ... people don't consider gamma rays to be "light". ... Light is photons within the visible wavelength range. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: the color of the universe is latte
    ... Dark matter doesn't interact with photons. ... Chris L Peterson ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: How many photons in one airy disc?
    ... Chris L Peterson wrote: ... > such thing as a "ray" consisting of a stream of photons, ... > photons will be in exactly the same path. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Laser ranging to moon begs questions
    ... >> determined that the moon is receding at 3.8 cm/year. ... I calculate a huge number of photons per second, ... narrowed by the small size of the mirror, say .5m, so the effective ... and corner reflectors are mathematically immune to alignment ...
    (sci.astro)
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