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?
There are good reasons to not use a tube: tubes limit airflow over the mirror, increasing “mirror seeing”, and they add weight. But then you need an alternative way of rejecting off-axis light. One way of doing that is a dome or similar enclosure.