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Optical Einstein Rings

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Posted by Erika on September 11, 2003 01:04:00 UTC

Perhaps I'm crazy, but Ithink not. Over 10 years ago, before most of our findings now on these rings, I saw one using a pair of binoculars. It was a night with no clouds, no humidity...no street lights where I was, the house lights were off. I had no idea what I had seen, and couldn't really explain it anymore than I saw a circle with a smaller circle in it...but it was a perfect ring. I stared at it for a few minutes and made sure it wasn't something in my eyes. No one else could find it (pointing isn't a great reference when you're using binoculars. It was today, surfing the web for black hole info (something strangely I've been fascinated with since around that time) and I was wondering if it was possibly that one of the floating balck holes in our galazy so recently confirmed may have been lensing a star? I can't think of many oteh rthings that would lead me to be able to see what I saw. never forgot it, and couldn't be convinced I saw something in error. After seeing other images today of more rings, I am now convinced that is what I saw, but I also am realizing exactly how rare that occurance is. Has anyone else seen anything like this, or have any other suggestions for what I saw? What are the chances of it being what I now believe it to be? I wish I knew more about the exact date I saw it (it was over 10 years ago) so that I could do more research and maybe find out which celestial objects were invloved.
All comments welcome

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