FIGURE 1. Schematic showing how a starshade in position against a nearby star might appear.

If a telescope of sufficiently good quality is stationed at the centre of the shadow, it would see the shade outlined against the zodiacal light of the target star system. At the base of each petal a small amount of light from the parent star diffracts around the shade. Planets simply appear as faint stars in the field of view. The shape of the starshade is based on the parameters used to calculate performance in Fig. 2.