Starship Asterisk*

[quote="Simple Peasant"]To what extend could one make use of gravitational assist for increasing spacecraft speed if one lived in a large, tight globular cluster? Crossing from one side of the cluster to the other a spacecraft could make use of numerous stars for assist.[/quote]
No reason why not, though one's course would have to be carefully plotted to take advantage of the various stars' orbital motions. Would take quite a while I imagine. :)

[quote]This may well have happened quite naturally numerous times with planetisimals and planets.[/quote]
Most certainly. Complex systems like this often eject unlucky bodies through gravitational interactions. :)

[quote]What happens to the speed or nature of a photon when it passes close to a black hole but not so close that it gets captured?[/quote]
Well, its path will be bent by the distorted spacetime around the black hole, similar to passing through a lens (but not identical). Falling towards the black hole, light is blueshifted, climbing away from a black hole, light is redshifted. I imagine these effects cancel out for light not originating near the 'surface' of the black hole, however.

Simple Peasant[/quote]

To what extend could one make use of gravitational assist for increasing spacecraft speed if one lived in a large, tight globular cluster? Crossing from one side of the cluster to the other a spacecraft could make use of numerous stars for assist.

This may well have happened quite naturally numerous times with planetisimals and planets.

What happens to the speed or nature of a photon when it passes close to a black hole but not so close that it gets captured?

Simple Peasant