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Can you see the sun through a (reflecting) telescope? What's the difference between seeing a star via its light reflecting off a planet and seeing the star via

• thaumasiotes 10y ago
  Mirrors show the image of what they reflect. Non-reflective surfaces don't. What's the difference between the image of yourself in a puddle of rain on the sidewalk, and the image of yourself in the dry concrete of the sidewalk? One exists, and one doesn't. There's still light that travels from you, to the sidewalk, to your retinas, but that light reveals essentially nothing about you. The sidewalk has overwritten the information it used to carry.