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For gravitational lensing to occur, you need a bright distant object with a massive body (e.g. the Sun) between it and the Earth. The massive body's gravity will curve the space around it and in effect act as a lens. Thus, the distant object's light is seen to bend around the massive body on its way to the Earth. This effect was first confirmed by Arthur Eddington in a 1919 solar eclipse, when the light of distant stars was bent at the Sun's rim.
The effect you've seen is probably a combination of upper air disturbances and diffraction of the star's light as seen in the thumb experiment. The HST's mass is far to low to produce any measurable lensing effect.
Regards, Rob
Last edited by Robh; 28-08-2009 at 10:36 PM.
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