Optical image of an extensive air shower

Abstract Photons which constitute a shower image are not emitted simultaneously, but come from a range of shower front positions along the shower path. A spatial distribution of points of origin of photons arriving simultaneously to the eye is determined in this paper. Using realistic distribution of particles in a shower, and taking atmospheric scattering of light into account, the distribution of light arriving simultaneously to a detector is obtained. This instantaneous image (“a snapshot”) of the shower is independent of the detector properties – this is “what the shower looks like” when recorded with an ideal detector.