Or would the tolerances needed in the hinged mirror make the whole thing unusable?

I was looking at modern “smart telescopes” recently and noticed some are sideways and wondered if that would be possible for a normal hobby Newtonian telescope.

Possible upsides:

  • no tripod needed for use
  • mirror is light so smaller motors can be used for movement

Possible downsides:

  • maybe mirror flatness?

EDIT/UPDATE: so i tryed it with a 75mm first surface mirror, it kinda worked, at least better than a normal mirror, but i wasnt able to get it as sharply focused as i like. I suspect the mirrior i use has micro ripples because its just 2mm thick and doesent look like its seen a polishen process…guess thats how far a budget of 25bucks gets ya

  • wishaEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    If you rotate the hinge to angle X above the horizon, light coming in from an altitude angle of 2X (=zenith angle of 90deg-2X) will get reflected to into horizontal rays inside the tube.

    So you don’t need a mount with adjustable altitude angle - the hinge accomplishes that.