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I was wondering if on the recieving end of a black hole can you see the photons being sucked in

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Hi Billy, and welcome to Physics Stack Exchange! This question doesn't actually make much sense, unless you can explain what you mean by the "receiving end of a black hole." Can you explain in more detail what you mean? – David Zaslavsky♦ Dec 9 '11 at 0:26
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It seems that OP means the other side of the event horizon. – Qmechanic♦ Dec 9 '11 at 1:12

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If you mean inside the event horizon then all sorts of strange things happen. Firstly, space and time are swapped. If you are not quite in the centre of the black hole then you will not be able to see anything that is closer to the singularity because nothing can move away from it. However, if you look away from the centre then you will see two images of the same object. One from the future of the event and one from the past. There are all sorts of strange loops inside the even horizon which give some very interesting head-hurting results!

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Why should an observer behind the Schwarzschild radius see the two images as You mention and what do You mean by the strange loops? I dont understand this and have never heard about such things ... – Dilaton Jan 8 '12 at 10:55
The two images analogy was a reference to two different world lines, outside the event horizon, converging to the singularity inside the black hole. With loops I was referring to the fact that all the world lines inside the event horizon are pointing down. I probably should not have used the word `loops' as it creates the wrong image. – Omar Jan 8 '12 at 14:04
@Omar: They are not two images of the same event, they are images of the same particle at different times, both to the past of you. The images are distorted and the issue is not straightforward. – Ron Maimon Jan 9 '12 at 19:19
@RonMaimon Agreed and I stated that above as well. In-line with the question, it was meant to be a descriptive answer of a very hypothetical situation. I agree that the reality is far more complex! – Omar Jan 9 '12 at 19:39
@Omar: I might have misread it then, it looks ok. – Ron Maimon Jan 9 '12 at 23:12

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