Recorded history of astronomical observations clearly shows that the rays of star light are gravitationally lensed solely the plasma rim of the sun, not in the plasma-free space for impact parameters of light rays above the plasma rim. Although the plasma atmosphere of the sun has a thickness of only a fraction of a solar radius, the gravitational light bending effect as predicted by the light bending rule of General Relativity should be easily detectable above plasma rim in the plasma-free space for several solar radii with current technical means. Findings show the solar plasma atmosphere represents an indirect interaction involving an interfering plasma medium between the gravitational field of the sun and the rays of the stars light. Calculations supporting this argument lead to the very same light bending equation obtained by General Relativity, derived from classical assumptions of a minimum energy path of a light ray in a plasma atmosphere exposed to the gravitational gradient field of the sun. This result is confirmed by cited researchers who used a very-long-baseline-interferometer (VLBI) measurement on extra galactic radio sources to determine the gravitational deflection of microwaves at the solar plasma rim, obtaining a result to within 0.9998 +/- 0.0008 times that of General Relativity. Moreover, there is a clear lack of lensing among the countless numbers of stars, where likely candidates for gravitational lenses and point-like light sources are by good chance co-linearly aligned with the earth based observer. With this condition well at hand and by assuming the validity of the light bending rule of General Relativity, the sky should be filled with images of Einstein rings. Findings convincingly show the failed observation of Einstein rings in the star-filled skies are fundamentally due to the larger impact parameters requiring the light to pass above the stellar atmosphere of the lensing stars due to the astronomical distances.
