An optical n-body gravitational lens analogy

Raised menisci around small discs positioned to pull up a water-air interface provide a highly controllable experimental setup capable of reproducing much of the rich phenomenology of gravitational lensing (or microlensing) by n-body clusters. Results are shown for single, binary, and triple mass systems. The scheme represents a versatile testbench for the (astro)physics of general relativity's gravitational lens effects, including high multiplicity imaging of extended sources.