Does anyone think it would be possible to send a huge reflective surface facing our solar system hundreds of light years away or even further?
If so, could we focus our orbiting-telescopes on that reflective surface to observe PAST planet positions in our solar system?
You would have to get the reflector there before the light from our solar system arrived, So using Alpha Centari B which is 4.37 light years away, your mirror would have to be set up in Alpha Centari B 8.74 years before today to observe the light from today. If you wanted to observe the Earth from 2000 years ago today your mirror would have to be have to have been set up 1000 light years away, 1000 years ago. accounting for the time it takes the light to travel to the mirror and be reflected back.