I have been wanting to ask this question most of my life and for some reason have only now decided to ask this.. When you look at a photo of a star or a cluster of stars you see an apparent size of the star or stars in relation to the size of the photo and the degree of space that was recorded when the image was captured.. My question is this..Is the round blob of light ( the star ) captured on film the actual size of the star in relation to everything else or is this simply light being distorted making the star look bigger than it actually appears in the photo? Here is a link to an image of a double star.. Am I looking at the actual edge of the stars atmosphere when I look at this image or a distortion of light making the star appear bigger..I suppose I might be able to answer this question myself using the headlight effect.. If you look at a light from 30 miles away, it really isnt that big in person. I am, however, still unsure


Thanks, Shawn