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But if the light is "warping" around the object then would you be able to grab the light from either side by intercepting it there? If you are at the X AU required for lending, but you sit at X/2 AU with some slight offset, you would be in the path of the light that would be traveling to X AU eventually.

I understand if what I'm trying to describe is impossible, I just don't fully understand why. (Is it out of focus? Is the sun too big/bright?)

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I'm no expert here. You mention "either side" as if the light came from both the left and the right. But I think the light would be coming along a circle all around the sun depending on exact position.

So the trick here is that if you are at the focus point, you get all that light in a small area "for free". But if you try to catch the light on the way, you now need to catch eveywhere in a whole massive circle, which is basically impossible, so you only catch a minuscule amount of the light. And then have to deal with interferometry.

> But if the light is "warping" around the object then would you be able to grab the light from either side by intercepting it there?

Certainly. But it won't be any more focused at that location. There's no real advantage compared to just building a regular phased antenna array.

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