“Actually, what you would see, given that you are able to withstand the tidal gravitational effects, would be that the entire universe being bent into a small cone in front of you looking away from the BH. Will have to find the exact reference for this, but it is in Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne.”

This is a quote taken from Chris Hardee from an on-line forum concerned with astronomy and cosmology.  I found this when I googled:  “how to create black hole lensing effect.”  I have been struggling to simulate the effect that is said to occur around the outside of a black hole.  the light that isn’t sucked in, is distorted at its’ perimeter, and looks something like this:

Unfortunately, I have not succeeded in imitating this effect and have since decided to attempt to create the conical view of the universe opposite the black hole.  Turns out that not only can you read Thorne’s book “Black Holes and Time Warps” on-line, but that it is a great read and has amazing images.