  In this work we consider the observational properties of compact boson stars
with self-interactions orbited by isotropically emitting (hot-spot) sources and
optically thin accretion disks. We consider two families of boson stars
supported by quartic and sixth-order self-interaction potentials, and choose
three samples of each of them in growing compactness; only those with large
enough compactness are capable to hold light-rings, namely, null bound orbits.
For the hot-spots, using inclination angles $\theta=\{20^\circ, 50^\circ,
80^\circ \}$ we find a secondary track plunge-through image of photons crossing
the interior of the boson star, which can be further decomposed into additional
images if the star is compact enough. For accretion disks we find that the
latter class of stars actually shows a sequence of additional secondary images
in agreement with the hot-spot analysis, a feature absent in typical black hole
space-times. Furthermore, we also find a shadow-like central brightness
depression for some of these stars in both axial observations and at the
inclination angles above. We discuss our findings in relation to the capability
of boson stars to effectively act as black hole mimickers in their optical
appearances as well as potential observational discriminators.
