SYNOPSIS:

1.The paper starts by revealing the conceptual sources for the new idea of a Shell-Shaped Universe based on a Big Bang of finite duration, and an internal paving of Empty Photons. In addition the inability of external Empty Space to propagate light, and totally internal reflection of all internal light within the Universe would deliver a wholly illusory picture of his context to any observer.

2.And this illusory view would not reveal the Shell nature, but would give both an extended and apparently evenly spread spherical picture instead. Now, though these ideas have been described elsewhere, this paper includes many diagrams to illustrate what is conceived to be happening to light from stars and galaxies before it reaches an observer. The first image is of totally internal reflections and the virtual copies of real sources, and where they appear to be.

3.The possibility of multiple, widely dispersed, images of the same source is described, and the modification of what an observer would see and hence conclude, is explained. Indeed, a single star might well appear in certain conditions as a Star Cluster!

4.Perhaps the most remarkable effect of this totally internal reflection within an expanding Shell Universe must be when light cycles right round the whole Shell (maybe several times) and the consequence of an observer seeing several of these simultaneously.

5.Yet such phenomena, if correctly interpreted, would give unparalleled historical information from several times in the history of a single source, and could also allow the removal of virtual images and the clear discovery of the actual boundaries of our Universe.