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?
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.