everyday-lifeopticsreflectionvisible-light
In this photo, why is the sun not positioned exactly above the "axis" from which its reflection seems to spread?
I think it could be how sunlight refracts across the northern hemisphere but I'm not sure. I took this photo and I would be fascinated if this was a physics problem rather than a problem with my camera.
I used an iphone 5s.
In general, reflection and refraction happen when light passes from one medium to another. You can see this if you see your own reflection in a window. Now, as a light ray approaches the critical angle, not only does the refracted ray get closer to the surface, but the amount of light transmitted gets less and less. At the critical angle, the refracted ray would be along the surface, but the amount of light is zero.
The graph below shows how much light is reflected at various angles of incidence. The graph on the right shows your situation of a ray of light moving from a dense medium to a lighter medium (glass to air, for example). At the critical angle, 100% of light is reflected, leaving none to propagate along the surface.
This would work, but you might think it is cheating.
If there can be no gaps, I would guess it is not possible. Your star idea won't work. Light that leaves you will bounce up the V and back out. The ray shown misses you. But if you look at a fan of rays, some will go to the left of you and some to the right. There is always one that will hit you.
If you use a smooth curve instead of planar mirrors, you cannot avoid seeing at least a point. This shows a ray that goes to the left and another that goes to the right. Some ray in between will hit you.
You might try to avoid it by putting mirror in the way to block that ray. But that piece has the same problem.
You might try to make a mirror where all the rays are deflected to the left. But that is a spiral, not a closed curve.
Best Answer
This is a steal / riff on Asher's correct answer.
If you are using a tablet, tilt it so that the left hand side is closer to your face, now does it look ok, ........on my cheap tablet it does.
No building authority (except Pisa Municipal Council in Italy) would allow this degree of vertical tilt, so obviously the camera does sometimes lie.
This is an example of aberration, caused by distortions of light ray paths inside of the camera lens, particularly with zoom lenses.
This curvilinear aberration can take one of two forms, either like this:
Pincushion distortion:which is what causes the effect in your picture.
Barrel distortion,
Or like this:
These pictures are taken from Curvilinear Distortion.
PhotoSE deals with this, but on first reading anyway, not in as much detail as I would have expected.
I agree, if it was due to a previously unknown aspect of physics, that would be great. Sadly, it's more mundane.
EDIT
In case his comment is deleted, please take account of Samuuel Weir's remark in assessing my wording above:
And tfb
Both of these users have a much better grasp of physics than I do.
END EDIT