Shadow of rotating black holes on a standard background screen

Abstract

We present the shape of the black hole shadow on the standard background screen as it is registered by the distant observer. The screen is an infinite plane, emitting the quanta uniformly distributed to a hemisphere. The source of emission is considered to be optically thin and optically thick. It is shown that the shape of a black hole shadow depends crucially on the angle between the plane and the view line to the distant observer. The shadow shapes for the different values of this angle are also presented. Both Schwarzschild and Kerr metrics are considered.