That's pretty much what I thought, didn't know what a midge was though. "Dick," as you used it, is considered slightly vulgar over here though, that's why I was surprised.

>A midge is a tiny insect that hangs around in the air, usually under trees and in a wee swarm, and bugs the hell out of you when you walk through a cloud of them. The rest refers to part of its anatomy, which i thought was a word common to both our languages.
>
>>I understood most of that, but now my most pressing question is, what is a "midge's dick?!"
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>>>I think I know what you're on about now. I guess the rays of light that converge and impinge on your retina, being those of the object upon which you are focusing, will not yet have converged when they strike the mirror.
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>>>In this sense, if you were to then turn and focus on the object "first hand" then the rays of light have a midge's dick less far to go so, in theory, if you had super-sensitive binocs, you would have to adjust infinitesimally.
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>>>><g> No, but I see now why you might think so. It's just something that I've wondered about and thought some of the geeky physics types here might have an idea. I think the first time I wondered was when I read about how artists back in history used mirrors to reflect images onto their canvas.
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>>>>>i think that the binoculars should work as normal as you are reflecting in a straight line. however if you are looking into the mirror that is turned at 45 degrees then i don't think that it would. although the only use i can see for this is that you want to spy on people without them seeing you in the window:) do you live accross from a girls college dorm by any chance?
>>>>>~M
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>>>>>>Looking through binoculars into a mirror that is angled to view out a window, will I be able to focus on objects far away the same way I would without the mirror? Or does the surface of the mirror itself become a variable?