Mr. May,

I a recent post you said, "If you get long enough you can start folding the scope with a flat and thus get the light back down to where you can see it." This idea intrigues me as I have been thinking about the awkwardness of large reflectors. My idea would put a flat mirror ahead of the secondary, not between the secondary and the primary. In essence, the scope would be looking at the mirror's reflection of the sky rather than the sky itself.

Then, hypothetically, couldn't you make the scope stationary and just move the mirror to see different parts of the sky, like a binocular mount I saw recently? Now, I know this wouldn't be quite as simple, but my question is would it work well optically? Obviously, another mirror surface reduces the amount of light that gets to the primary, but if it's a good mirror it might not make much difference? Where would one obtain a very flat, highly reflective mirror?

Or, maybe there are considerations I don't see that would make this unworkable....

Thanks.