... A mirror.
Yes, a mirror. With a Mirror, you get the reflection of a object, that are the Species produced by the object and that count like a AC, maybe not different from the breath or something, but you can use it without a spell or Penetration, and after of that you can use it to boost your Penetration total.
Well it wouldn't really work well, because you would have nothing when you finally look at your fantastic arcane connection but your own symbolic representation 
.
And if you try to say "we can use any arcane connection in our presence, even if we are not seeing it" (because you can't "hold" the symbolic in the mirror: you already hold the mirror !), then you just not need arcane connection - at least not the kind a mirror would allow to have.
Well, on optics there are grades with that you can get and see a image and use it. Another question, yu can sustainthe mirror like a shield (onfront of you) and you still being consdering sustianing the Arcane Conection, if not only the Arcanes Conections are possible from the lillte things on one hand, and tehre are many more, for example the own body and there for.
That does seem to be a bit of a stretch. Otoh, "scent" should work too, and that's species as well (or maybe just the sweat... not sure.)
And then there's the question of "how long" those species would last - not as an AC, but how long "an" AC such as that would be in your possession - long enough to cast a spell? You are getting new species every moment - and each "individual" one (of which there are literally countless!) are only lasting a finger-snap (if that long!), and then gone again, and you need "an" AC to use for the spell, not a constant stream of ephemeral ones. It's the difference between having a sample of water, and trying to use a small, rushing waterfall of water (if somehow you had that in your lab instead) - only multiplied an infinite amount of times. The difference between a rock from a place and an avalanche, etc.
If "a moving image" were an AC, you'd be fine - but that's not an AC (or not according to page 84 - ysmv etc).
But creative - some SG's will reward that alone.
Well, it's not the mirror but the image in the mirror that is the Arcane Connection. And if it is one, then so are the species you get when you view the object directly. And if shed skin is an Arcane Connection lasting only hours, the species must last an even shorter time as an Arcane Connection. In other words, they would be useless as a Penetration Booster.
Now, if your target is vain, offer her a mirror and then steal it back a few months later, and that will count as a favorite tool Maybe enchant the mirror to 'imprint' her image, and that will count as a Symbolic Representation as well.
Well, a scent and a breath can be a AC, the problem it's take and contain them; with them we need magic or a way to catch things so ephemeral. If you think that a image should be in the same way, the the miroro could be enchanted to catch any image that it reflect...
On any way, a mirror catch a image naturally, if you think that a seailed on a bottle or a fur in varnish or enveloped aren't AC accesible, Fixed and all, i am not so ok. Those case on Ars Magica have a correct way to be perserved, Profession Apothecary let you exted that AC with a no magical method for example, and on any side say atht you need destroy the conservative media to use it. Then it's true that a image must be in the mirror, but if you take practice to use that method you can.
I mean, a footstep or a wound maked by an animal are ACs, then the image of a being too.
Wow, i forgot it, the mirror image isn't though to be a long distance, but yes a Buster quick on that moment booster, ideally to magi without high Rego or problems with Rego spellcasting, it's thought to get a image in THAT moment, yes a +1 like a footstep or a breath or something like taht, but witout magic, nor a AC to be fixed (just like the wound produced by a being).
The title made me think about the kind of sex some American president did not have with M.L. 
edit: :mrgreen: added
I don't think so.
An image in a mirror is definitely a Sympathetic Connection though.
I'd say rather that a mirror can show visual species that would let you target someone (i.e. someone round a corner) but wouldn't provide an AC as the species are so short lived the AC doesn't effectively last long enough for you to do anything with them, such as cast a spell.
Think about it, different ACs last different times, body parts last longer than hair, hair lasts longer than spit. All of these linger when the target is not there, at least for a while. But when the target goes, so too do his visual species. Hence maybe yes, technically you can get an AC, i'd rulle that it lasts less than a second, not long enough to use before those species are gone and new ones arrive. This is fine for targetting a spell but not sufficient to allow the extra magical workings that using an AC requires.
Since than there are Blind and Short Ranged Magi still being of use, adn any AC grant the +1 like the least i think.
Thanks by your opinions.
Agreed. This is an Sympathetic Connection, not an Arcane Connection.
Let's see different ACs to a human being (Mentem + Corpus) or beast (Animal) can produce:
-Blood (Out of the body can be affected with Aquam without Animal or Corpus requisites)
-Footsteps (Terram, Aquam on mud or snow and somtimes Herbam)
-Breath (Auram required to take it)
-Pee (Aquam)
-Feces (Terram)
-Wounds on another body (Animal or Corpus)
The AC doesn't need be of the same Form of the fount/thing connected to.
Without any includes the possesion range (tools and therefore), i don't see anything against to see the Species produced by a bient/object and reflected by a mirror and to use it. On Core Rules, of course, but yours personally/troupe rulings/thought are other thing.
This.
Which is to say that merely "looking" at someone or "hearing" them or "smelling" them, etc, gives you an AC to them - which is broken on several levels.
I found this explanation by Heisenberg ex Bonisagus:
Species are fleeting things. Therefore, you cannot fix an arcane connection based on species.
(Perhaps it would have been possible before he tried...) 8)
I would say that there are some wonderful ways of boosting penetration and gaining AC's. It's sort of an angel i'm going for as my player at the moment
Fecal matter and breath are short lasting (+1's), but good starters. Add to this the name, a horoscope and a symbolic representation and you're looking at +4 muliplier bonus. Turning a 5 penetration skill into 25 penetration skill. A little groundwork can find some of these.
Spells like A&A's genelithiological inspection (is that right) can find a horroscope. This is a spell that I intend on of my Magi to master with penetration mastery (say level 1 for now) through an intangible tunnel. Turning his 7 penetration (including puisant bonuses and specialities) to an 8 and then with an arcane connection and name into a 24. This is before, aura (4), excess from casting total (10) and the dice-roll come into play. so another 14 + dice roll......38+ a dice roll would require (given a corpus of 8) a Parma of 6 to bounce the spell.....
I know this is for a magus signficiantly out of Gauntlet, but the foes he's comming up against would still have issues against that sort of magic and planning. At lower levels of power, the opponents resistances would likely be lower so the threat would scale too. Add to this Symbolic representations (+1/+2) and better arcane connections (+2 to +4) and this is going to go from 38+ a die roll up to ranges like 46-78 + a die roll.... This may make getting the horroscope seem a bit overkill at this stage, but it gives you a rough idea of the sort of power that can quickly stack with a little bit of sympathtic connection.
Even dropping the penetration to 5 (+1), this would make the same attempt 18 + 14 or 32+ This gives starting magi with a bit of thought and planning the ability to really become an anti-parma powerhouse
Admitedly this may seem like it makes going after an Archmagus feasible, but the good thing about it is going after Arcane connections, and spying on the Magus without breaking the code/getting caught are all good stories.
Blood is a good connection, Vilano's ability to cause indirect damage and harm without penetration is good as it allows a magus the ability to cause harm around the parma and then use any spilt blood as a strong AC to start ploughing through a wider range of spells.
A
It seems that since visual species are already collected directly (through the act of seeing the target), they would already be accounted for in the base rules for penetration. Using the fact that you can see the target as an additional bonus, either arcane or sympathetic connection, smacks of double dipping to me.
Very clever, but if it seems too good to be true...
Last night's session involved Benedic "taking one for the team" (mind you, that always seems to happen but every time we somehow convinced him that it's his turn and he just needs to man up) and pretending to be ill so that they could scope out a physician they suspected of being in league with the devil.
The brusque medicus ordered poor Benedic to pee in a pot so his humours could be assessed, which he duly did. And when the doctor prescribed a good old blood-letting to re-balance his sanguine humour our magus benedic made a scene and got right out of there, fearful of handing over a pint (which as we all know is very nearly an arm full) of arcane connection.
Of course, he forgot the pot of pee he kindly provided not five minutes earlier and left it there, remembering almost as soon as the door shut behind him.
It was subsequently used as an arcane connection against him, by which time he'd used Leap of Homecoming to ensure that he was safe inside the covenant aegis.
So if a physician with a commanding presence orders a character to piss in a pot there's a good chance they'll be ever so obliging.
Indeed, by this argument you have an Arcane Connection to anyone you can sense. It seems to me to be a silly side effect of using Aristotelian optics. It only makes sense if you assume that people and objects are constantly emitting an unending supply of little bits of themselves called species. It's yet another reason to use real optics instead.