I built a barn door as my fist tracker, and have figured out some interesting hacks that can really improve the results: - A polar scope really helps! - rather than using the stopwatch, a fine tuned click track on headphones works really well. Just turn a specific angle per click, add longer lines on every fourth click to be able to correct yourself if you accidentally slow down. - try to continuously turn the wheel, I have been able to get decent results up to 300mm with a hand cranked system with the audio click track solution. - adding a stepper motor to do the rotation can be a fun project!
Wow 300mm hand cranked! Thanks for the tips Mario. I hadn't heard of anyone continuously turning the wheel manually - an audio click-track is a really smart way to do it!
@@NebulaPhotos continuously cranking takes some time to practice, but can definitely improve the results. Not only because of higher accuracy, but rather having less vibration due to avoiding the static friction when starting to crank. Thanks for the video, really brought back some good memories!
I wonder if you could mount a mechanical kitchen clock with some gear to get the accurate and smooth rotation. Gotta say, this movie and your comment inspired me a lot to make my own tracker and try it out. Thanks for both of you!
@@michakubisz535 the Omegon minitrack lx3 uses a mechanical system similar to a clock. I owned the lx2 for a while but wasn't happy with it. I don't think a barn door tracker would work with such a small actuator, because there is definitely some lifting involved. If you do succeed, I'd love to hear about it! I think a simple stepper motor with an integrated planetary gear with maybe a 100:1 ratio would work fine. Have fun!
@@mariogreenway3468 ok, so the idea to use a mechanical clock wasn't very good but I finally managed to create an automated star tracker using an electric motor with gearbox and a small electronic speed regulator. I only tested it once due to the weather. I also faced some issues transmitting momentum from the motor to the screw, the tracker still needs some adjustments. But it works - it really follows the stars :-) This is my first photo, very poor, with a lot of light pollution (I tested everything in my garden), stacked using only 3x 2 min. exposure photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMtyvEWjbe9uETruAJCJRyX8nKivx8D1qwAgwgg
This is exactly what I want to do! I'm so tired of astrophotographers saying that you need a crazy expensive rig. I'm hoping this video will prove them wrong! Can't wait to watch
use the 300 dollar sky watcher star adventurer with your basic DSLR and you can capture WONDERS .. trust me ... that 300 dollar thing can be used for years and years ... but i suggest first start with stacking and prove ur parents that you actually deserve the 300$ star tracker to level up .. they will get it for you .....
@@madhavsharma6643 its not abt trusting you. Its abt trusting the efforts made in the video. So why u have just 300 dollar mount? Why not 1000 dollar one? Ho ur parents thought u r not worth for the amount? Understand the motive of the video. They r ppl who cant afford even 100 dollars. This video gives hopes to less budget astros.
I don’t comment on youtube videos often, but I felt I have to on this one. Your video is a breath of fresh air, something new, something original. You and Astro Biscuit are probably the most interesting astro youtubers in a sea of “hey look at my shiny new gear you will never gonna be able to afford” or worse “hey look at this shiney new gear a company paid me lots of money to say nice things about it.”
From the first video I watched for you, I knew you’re different than other AP youtubers, your primary objective is not to have as many subscribers and likes to your channel, it’s to help all kind of AP fans to learn this hoppy no mater how experiences are they and how much money they can spare for this hoppy.
You can stick a little stiff cardboard (or metal) arrow to the side of the board above the angle wheel so that it almost touches the wheel. You can then check the angle with pretty good accuracy without bending over to look through the holes.
This was a great build. One piece of info I would add is that if you move your eye farther back from the drinking straw, you get a more "precise" viewing scope. Long range rifle shooters use a longer focal distance to provide a greater accuracy when firing. So start with your eye close, then as you dial it in, move your eye farther back.
For greater ease aligning polaris add a 3rd board to the bottom to the tracker shown to hinge on the South side and with an adjustment screw just like the first one. Then, set your tripod head level in both directions. Mount the added board to the leveled tripod head. The additional adjustment screw allows quick, easy, smooth altitude adjustment on Polaris. There'll be no jerkiness of the tripod head experienced while adjusting the polar tube for altitude.
A couple of modifications you may think about: Number one, I made the bolt curved, and put the CD on the inside of the tracker, so it would push the bolt up. It is curved to the radius, and positioned from the hinge, so the tracking is accurate over a longer period of time. I don't remember the exact distances, but similar to yours, probably. Another thing I did which would make your work greatly easier, was to notch the cd at intervals, so you don't have to look through any sights to get the rotation correct. You just feel for the notch, turn the cd until your finger hits some sort of stop, wait 5 sec, or 10 sec, however many notches you decided to use, then turn it again. That way, you don't have to keep looking at it. Then I used a Telrad for alignment. Not sure if you can still get them, but not very expensive, and reasonably accurate. But enjoyed watching your video! Those trackers do work, and are easy and cheap to make!
My only problem is getting the hardware, especially in India where some of these items might be called by different names or not available at all. Definitely budget friendly though so I might go out and try my luck one day
@@vpsjdon the same in Brazil but u just need to show some prints of the video or the pdf at the store. Don't know how it's there but here, screws, nuts, drills, etc are identified using the same size pattern (for all the rest we use the IS)
Great job ! I made one with an Arduino controlled stepper motor, works perfect (after a few revisions) with my little FS converted A7s. It's refreshing to see someone actually build something !!! It's not about budget, it's about building !
I just came across this video and had that thought also..I have a few Arduino's and stepper motors laying around so I think it will be a nice little project and way less expensive than the over priced commercial star trackers. What is your rate/length of step?
I just want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge with us all so generously. As a rookie i really appreciate your posts on TH-cam. Thanks for including us all.
Getting the tracker not to shake while rotating has been the biggest challenge for me. I have a very stable tri-pod - Getting a good polar alignment has been helpful. I usually shoot in a Bortle 4 so finding the end of the little dipper is a little tricky. I use a north star map compared to other constellations to make sure I am pointed at the north star and not the next star up in the handle of the little dipper. - Adding a vertical support for the top board to rest on as it rises helps reduce wobble - I have about 6 feet (2 meters) of string wrapped around a spool I made using a small piece of tube glued between 2 CD disks. I pull the string at a constant rate. - On the CD disks I have marks at every 5 seconds and labeled 15, 30, 45 & 60 seconds. - I listen to an recording from a timer that counts off every 5 seconds. - I have an electric candle from the dollar store that is dimmer than a night light. - I picked up a plastic telescope finder scope for $15 on ebay. There are a few people selling new old stock that have been collecting dust on shelves and want to clear them out of their store rooms. - I had better results with the 12" long 1/4" rod bent into an arc shape which requires the rod to be stationary and the timer wheel to push the top board up. A spacer between the timer wheel and the top board is needed. - I tried the double arm tracker but never could get the combination to work.
I recently built one with legos, and worked pretty neatly. I could take 30s exposures at 952mm focal length. Now I got a real tracker, because the lego one had to be over a table next to the telescope!
@@ashimayed8013 I actually don’t have a yt channel but I can tell you its basically making the lego motor spin at a certain speed that suits your own mount. For example I have a manual equatorial mount, so I had to turn the handle for rotation about 4 times an hour. You can slow down the motor by adding engranes in various layers to reach optimum speed. It took a lot of adjusting but it is possible.
@@carlosrojasrodriguez930 What you're describing is motorizing an existing manual tracking mount, not making a tracking mount from scratch. In your case all the tracking mechanics are already in place.
So awesome Nico! I remember reading about barn door trackers before buying a mount when starting astrophotography but I never had the courage to build one myself, happy to see you challenged yourself to build one and it worked really good!
Thanks a lot, great job again! For those of you who want a budget motorised barn-door-type star tracker, I suggest the batteries operated NYX Tracker, $130... It has an inbuilt laser to point Polar star and ballhead for your tripob included. I own it and it is very easy, fun and great to use.
Great video, and it's not just money either, it is the real satisfaction that people can get from building, designing and creating something for themselves. Starting simple with any hobby also means you really appreciate moving through better and better gear as time goes on, and this is something I would never want to have missed out on.
I made a barn door tracker, to polar align it I made an app thats shows when you are pointing to the north celestial pole. I added some wooden bits to attach my phone to the tracker and used an old iphone I had. Then I use the app to polar align and double check it in the staw. Works pretty good every time. This could work for people down south too
Nice video Nico, my tracker like this, is over twenty years old, I still have the photos in slide format with my beautiful beloved Pentax K1000, when I was less than 20 years old. Good Times.Yours was spectacular. Congratulations clear skies of Portugal.
I made one of these barn door trackers many decades ago from design plans found in a telescope/astronomy book. What I do remember is the dimensions of the tracker and bolt thread pitch was set so that 1 revolution around the bolt thread per minute was needed in order track celestial objects in the night sky. The device also needed to be aligned with a particular direction in the sky. Took some interesting photographs
Great, Nico! Since startrackers are very expensive in Brazil (since we have to import them), my student is implementing a microcontrolled/motorized barn-door. In a near future, after some tests, we will share the project too.
Amazing Nico! I just want to let you know that I was looking for a cheap way to track for a long time. I’ve seen other barndoor trackers, but I have no skills with electronics and you can’t find skytrackers to buy here in Brazil. The only time I saw one around here it was so expensive that it was prohibitive. I was shooting hundreds of pictures and stacking but now you just gave me the push I needed to make my own tracker. I’m so grateful for the valuable information. Thank you so much!
Do you think this track can work with an 100mm 1.8F lens? With way less tracking time I believe. I Also have a 24mm 2.8F around that will work perfectly.
Possibly, but you would need a better polar alignment than the straw I use here. Maybe drift alignment or some kind of computer/phone assisted method. I have to study all the ways more.
@@NebulaPhotos thanks Nico. I have a green laser that’s allowed here and I know my way around at sky. But it wont be very precise for the 100mm without an octans finderscope.
@@GameBrou you can do a drift alignment. Use the telephoto lens live view and zoom on the dslr display. You might need to temporarily turn up the ISO setting to see the stars. Don't forget to reset it before taking real pictures. You can turn on grid lines if that helps gauge the drift. If you look up the offset of Polaris for your particular location and date, you can get a pretty close approximation using the laser pointer to start. It'll take some time but it is 'do able'.
@@hbmike47 thank you so much! I'll try that as soon as my tracker is ready. You guys are awesome. That's why I love astronomy. So much love for sharing the knowledge. Clear skyes to you wonderful persons out there!!
Wish i knew about this a couple years ago... oh well. But Nico i love your channel so much. Your videos are always so creative and in depth, and i love the appeal as an amateur astrophotographer. Keep up the amazing work, cant wait to watch your channel grow!
Nico, this is absolutely amazing! I'm still in the financial rabbit hole but really looking forward to try this out myself in the future. Congrats and clear skies.
Hi nico i just build one using your pdf guide and the video , really love the simplicity of this , im going to try to get use this with my phone when the sky clears up
Very cool, Nico! I agree astrophotography tends to be inaccessible because the cost of gear is so high. I'm sure there's a way to automate the tracker with a small electric motor, a cheap raspberry pi, and maybe some inexpensive (or 3D printed) gears. Raspberry Pi's were designed to allow school children to make robotics projects. I'm no raspberry pi expert.
Nice Nico! Small improvement - a kid's pea shooter has a slightly wider hole which will make it easier, and a plastic protection (so you can't poke your eye out).
Let me share the fact that watching your videos is a great pleasure! You always dave so deep in details. Your voice and a speaking rate are fine for understanding by foreign listeners. And the subtitles. They do not look as automatic, do you write them by yourself? Thanks for your job, that is done really top class. What I should do is go to patreon and donate. My best wishes!
Instead of looking down and getting a stiff neck, you could a short perpendicular projection on the rim of the drive wheel and a bracket with a perpendicular slit on end of the drive board that places the slit just outside the drive-wheel rim. (A white or silver (or glow in the dark) painted tick mark on the edge of the cd might be visible depending on how dark your environment is and would simplify the build.) Then you could just sit comfortably in a chair looking at the drive wheel more or less edge on and just rotate the drive wheel so that the projection aligns with the slit during each time interval. If you wish to rotate in smaller increments than full turns, just add more projections along the rim at appropriate intervals.
Now my mind’s made up I’m going to make this I love the simplicity. There are compound hinge barn door trackers with less cumulative error but the simplicity of this one is charming. Great build for a budding young astronomer
One way to get slightly better polar alignment without having to rely on securing your metal drinking straw exactly in line with the hinge would be to use the drinking straw as the hinge pin. The next size up of tubing is typically a nice slip fit over the smaller tubing, so you can cut segments of the next size up and glue or otherwise secure them in alternating sides to each of your boards. Waxing the inner pin and the edges of each segment of outer tubing helps to keep any glue from freezing the hinge up while you're assembling it.
I love this channel. Where were you 20 years ago when I was figuring out all of this stuff. I've been out of the hobby for years and can't believe the advancements since then. I'd love to get back in but light pollution and bad weather is why I dropped out and that has only gotten worse in the past 20 years. BTW you look like Tim Roth.
He is the best on here James. I'm no Patrick Moore but this is interesting stuff. Well Nico make it interesting in the way he puts it across and the tutorials are spot on. Best on TH-cam
I found your site while reviewing star trackers. I appreciate your attention to detail with both your videos and step by step description. I got all the parts at Home Depot yesterday and am building it today. Will try it out and let you know.
This is great ain't it. A couple of bits of ply and a disk. Top class tutor with a tad DIY and hey presto. A superb photo, I guess this movement could be controlled with an Arduino Uno or mega 2650 and stepper motor. A bit trial and error and you could make this work well. Not that manual didn't work. Nico proved it works with a disk and turning it manually. Anyway. You just got to love these videos
I can only say wow, seriously awesome result! I have the Omegon LX2 and have got some good results but I can’t get 2 minutes out of it - though with the light pollution around here it would be pointless trying. Look forward to the vid on the LX mini tracks and the move shoot move 👍
Was planning to start tracked AstroPhotography this spring, but was really debating $400 star tracker. I think this is what I am going to go ahead with and see how much can I squeeze from such an equipment. Can't wait for another 3 hours.
I do film photography I've been dying for a way to take pictures of the milky way and this is exactly what I've been looking for. I did everything almost exactly as instructed (except I had to use a different screw and t nut to attach it to my tripod) and it works! 15° every 2.5 seconds did the trick. I've taken a few more shots but just started a new roll of film so I gotta wait a bit to see more results. I had 2 shots that would have been great except some gnarly light pollution messed with my subject.
Thankyou Niko - was looking at the Omegon Lx3 tonight and saw your vid pop up. Definitely building this instead first. Think I'll try the laser pointer option for polar alignment and see how it goes. Awesome work!!
As a suggestion, I want to say that you should make a video on shooting of planets through smartphone on an untracked mount and stacking them . Smartphone astrophotography attracts a lot of beginner astrophotographers and I will be benefitted too. I hope that you will keep my request. Moreover, you can also do a Milky way photo shoot through smartphone as mentioned by some one else. Thanks.
I recall the article for the ‘scotch mount’. I did build one way back in the late 70s to strap my Zenit E to. The main investment was a ball mount for the camera, everything else was stuff laying around. But I had no real tripod or way to get any sort of polar alignment, and the lens was the stock Helios the Zenit came with. It worked but was so awkward to use that I only tried it on a couple of slides.
It will be great to see motorized barn door tracker in your version! Everything what do you need it's a: Chinese motor "28BYJ-48 + Driver (1.6$)" Arduino (5$) for code (code you can find this in internet for free) Two 3d printed gear (1:4 i think will be great) "it's very cheap (less that 1$) just find who can print them for you" And 1 meter threaded rod m5 (or different) + 2 nut (1$) So, you can upgrade your barndoor tracker to motorized just for near 10$ (in your country prices can be different) P.S. Sorry for my bad "France":D
Y really like this. I found it some months ago when I started to look into astrophotography. And I think that this can be easily made motorized with some steeper motor and arduino.
Check out the finder on the old Edmunds Astroscan. Not the newer one. The older black bracket. It’s just two separated holes with the closest being smaller. All you need is a straight edge and two 90 degree tabs with holes. I can’t imagine a cheaper approach. Great video man. I’ve had this one on the back burner myself. Some you see take this thing to motorized as you know. You can practically go sky’s the limit. It’s a really good tip for folks to use something like Thompson’s Water-seal to condition the wood. They will warp due to humidity over time. You executed this well. There’s absolutely no need for me to make this video. I’ll just refer them to you. Clear skies.
Thank you for this! I have enjoyed your videos and have learned a lot! Just getting started into this hobby and finding ways to do it without spending a lot of money is very attractive right now. I would love to see a follow up to this since you mentioned getting some upgrades on it to use longer focal lengths and comparing it with the other trackers.
For the polar alignment keep a compass ( can use the one on your smartphone) perpendicular with the tracker to find north and then you could first level your tracker with a spirit level to be perpendicular with the horizon and then stick a protractor and then keep it at the degree of the latitude on which you stay that way you can polar align easily and you and do it without even having to look at polaris
Thanks, I will try it and compare to some other methods. My guess (because I use that method for daytime polar alignment) is that it will be no more accurate than the drinking straw method, but it is good to mention for people who have no view of the celestial pole where they are setting up.
Yesss this is what i was hoping on you would do...but a bum w/o work , with two handy's lol And it keeps you a bit warmer at night ..hihi Well done Nico , am a huge fan of your videos ! Grtzz johny geerts
Can't wait for the comparison / test of the Omegon LX2 / MSM. I'm new to it and currently I own just my regular landscape-photography gear. Tinkering around with 200 exposures of one image is neat, but I want something better. I find the price of the LX2 a bit hefty "for what it is" so I'm not sure if I would waste my money there. My equipment is not that heavy - Mirrorless APS-C that weighs 1.6kg with a mounted tele. I just find the 400 bucks for a Skywatcher pretty hard to swallow as an entrygate for something I might not like. And because it's so specialized it's hard to resell IMHO. I'll wait for your video :)
Move-Shoot-Move phone mount. You can use that and PhotoPills with a Polar Clock to align very accurately. You could possibly make your OWN phone mount that is very similar and use a free app. Chasing Luminance done an awesome video on this and the results were very accurate. Awesome video BTW. I'd love to see one that tracks the ISS as it travels across the sky, with a tele-lens. I would assume it would be difficult to do.
I created a similar tracker, but with a stepper motor from some scanner or something like that. In my design, a gear threaded onto a curved spindle was rotated by the motor, creating a worm gear mechanism. I even went so far as to tinker with a programmer and manufacture a control board that would rotate the motor at the desired speed. However, I was young and lacked the patience to make the board sufficiently well, and there was always a contact issue somewhere. So, I never managed to capture anything worthwhile with that mount :D
This is my next project. Got a solid ball head that uses the same qr plates as my regular tripod; can just swap in/out. Now time to get some wood, a hinge, some threaded rod, and a couple of t-nuts.
I remember making one of these in the 80's when I was a kid. Using it with old film cameras and got decent results. I was lucky to grow up in rural Ireland, back then the skies were very dark. Probably bortle 2 maybe 1.
Would be interesting to see you check out the Omegon Mini Track LX2 or LX3, which are clockwork trackers. (Edit) Ha ha, should have watched to the end before commenting, looking forward to the test.
Before I upgraded for automatic tracking I did sort of the same with my big 1000/200 newtonian. It worked great! But what is always weird is to get "caught" in the middle of the night with such an instrument and then you have to explain yourself :D
There's also a commercial version of the barndoor tracker for around $100, I think. It uses a laser to polar align and a small 5v geared motor to turn the drive screw. Pretty good design. The company is nyxtech. I have no connection to them but have used an early version and it works well. I replaced the rather cheap ballhead with a beefier one for more stability. The downside is you are limited to fairly wide lenses. I've used mine with a 50mm lens but would not try anything heavier.
I just wanted you to know that you’re the reason I got into astrophotography. I don’t have a lot of money. So every little thing helps. Thank you.
I built a barn door as my fist tracker, and have figured out some interesting hacks that can really improve the results:
- A polar scope really helps!
- rather than using the stopwatch, a fine tuned click track on headphones works really well. Just turn a specific angle per click, add longer lines on every fourth click to be able to correct yourself if you accidentally slow down.
- try to continuously turn the wheel, I have been able to get decent results up to 300mm with a hand cranked system with the audio click track solution.
- adding a stepper motor to do the rotation can be a fun project!
Wow 300mm hand cranked! Thanks for the tips Mario. I hadn't heard of anyone continuously turning the wheel manually - an audio click-track is a really smart way to do it!
@@NebulaPhotos continuously cranking takes some time to practice, but can definitely improve the results. Not only because of higher accuracy, but rather having less vibration due to avoiding the static friction when starting to crank.
Thanks for the video, really brought back some good memories!
I wonder if you could mount a mechanical kitchen clock with some gear to get the accurate and smooth rotation.
Gotta say, this movie and your comment inspired me a lot to make my own tracker and try it out. Thanks for both of you!
@@michakubisz535 the Omegon minitrack lx3 uses a mechanical system similar to a clock. I owned the lx2 for a while but wasn't happy with it. I don't think a barn door tracker would work with such a small actuator, because there is definitely some lifting involved. If you do succeed, I'd love to hear about it! I think a simple stepper motor with an integrated planetary gear with maybe a 100:1 ratio would work fine. Have fun!
@@mariogreenway3468 ok, so the idea to use a mechanical clock wasn't very good but I finally managed to create an automated star tracker using an electric motor with gearbox and a small electronic speed regulator. I only tested it once due to the weather. I also faced some issues transmitting momentum from the motor to the screw, the tracker still needs some adjustments. But it works - it really follows the stars :-) This is my first photo, very poor, with a lot of light pollution (I tested everything in my garden), stacked using only 3x 2 min. exposure photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMtyvEWjbe9uETruAJCJRyX8nKivx8D1qwAgwgg
This is exactly what I want to do! I'm so tired of astrophotographers saying that you need a crazy expensive rig. I'm hoping this video will prove them wrong! Can't wait to watch
Hopefully to some extent
use the 300 dollar sky watcher star adventurer with your basic DSLR and you can capture WONDERS .. trust me ... that 300 dollar thing can be used for years and years ... but i suggest first start with stacking and prove ur parents that you actually deserve the 300$ star tracker to level up .. they will get it for you .....
@@madhavsharma6643 i think that money could be better spent on a better camera or scope
@@madhavsharma6643 its not abt trusting you. Its abt trusting the efforts made in the video. So why u have just 300 dollar mount? Why not 1000 dollar one? Ho ur parents thought u r not worth for the amount? Understand the motive of the video. They r ppl who cant afford even 100 dollars. This video gives hopes to less budget astros.
@@madhavsharma6643 why do people need their parents approval 🙄
I don’t comment on youtube videos often, but I felt I have to on this one. Your video is a breath of fresh air, something new, something original. You and Astro Biscuit are probably the most interesting astro youtubers in a sea of “hey look at my shiny new gear you will never gonna be able to afford” or worse “hey look at this shiney new gear a company paid me lots of money to say nice things about it.”
Yes, Nico and Astrobiscuit are the only astro youtubers I enjoy watching!
👍👏👏
From the first video I watched for you, I knew you’re different than other AP youtubers, your primary objective is not to have as many subscribers and likes to your channel, it’s to help all kind of AP fans to learn this hoppy no mater how experiences are they and how much money they can spare for this hoppy.
As a thinkerer I love your attitude. I'm sure big budgets produce better results but it doesn't come with the same satisfaction and sense of pride.
Good to see a channel that has not become a store window front for big companies.
You can stick a little stiff cardboard (or metal) arrow to the side of the board above the angle wheel so that it almost touches the wheel. You can then check the angle with pretty good accuracy without bending over to look through the holes.
This was a great build. One piece of info I would add is that if you move your eye farther back from the drinking straw, you get a more "precise" viewing scope. Long range rifle shooters use a longer focal distance to provide a greater accuracy when firing.
So start with your eye close, then as you dial it in, move your eye farther back.
For greater ease aligning polaris add a 3rd board to the bottom to the tracker shown to hinge on the South side and with an adjustment screw just like the first one.
Then, set your tripod head level in both directions. Mount the added board to the leveled tripod head. The additional adjustment screw allows quick, easy, smooth altitude adjustment on Polaris. There'll be no jerkiness of the tripod head experienced while adjusting the polar tube for altitude.
A couple of modifications you may think about: Number one, I made the bolt curved, and put the CD on the inside of the tracker, so it would push the bolt up. It is curved to the radius, and positioned from the hinge, so the tracking is accurate over a longer period of time. I don't remember the exact distances, but similar to yours, probably. Another thing I did which would make your work greatly easier, was to notch the cd at intervals, so you don't have to look through any sights to get the rotation correct. You just feel for the notch, turn the cd until your finger hits some sort of stop, wait 5 sec, or 10 sec, however many notches you decided to use, then turn it again. That way, you don't have to keep looking at it. Then I used a Telrad for alignment. Not sure if you can still get them, but not very expensive, and reasonably accurate. But enjoyed watching your video! Those trackers do work, and are easy and cheap to make!
The classical barn door. Lots of your younger viewers are scratching their heads right now. I love it. Old school.
Haha indeed ..and ww are stocked to startoff .
Mayby we can assamble it 'before the suns comes up ..' we sound like vampires haha
Grtzz
This is exactly how I started.
My only problem is getting the hardware, especially in India where some of these items might be called by different names or not available at all. Definitely budget friendly though so I might go out and try my luck one day
He's be imaging with an old Astroscan next Garnett :D
@@vpsjdon the same in Brazil but u just need to show some prints of the video or the pdf at the store. Don't know how it's there but here, screws, nuts, drills, etc are identified using the same size pattern (for all the rest we use the IS)
Great job ! I made one with an Arduino controlled stepper motor, works perfect (after a few revisions) with my little FS converted A7s. It's refreshing to see someone actually build something !!! It's not about budget, it's about building !
I just came across this video and had that thought also..I have a few Arduino's and stepper motors laying around so I think it will be a nice little project and way less expensive than the over priced commercial star trackers.
What is your rate/length of step?
I just want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge with us all so generously.
As a rookie i really appreciate your posts on TH-cam. Thanks for including us all.
Getting the tracker not to shake while rotating has been the biggest challenge for me. I have a very stable tri-pod
- Getting a good polar alignment has been helpful. I usually shoot in a Bortle 4 so finding the end of the little dipper is a little tricky. I use a north star map compared to other constellations to make sure I am pointed at the north star and not the next star up in the handle of the little dipper.
- Adding a vertical support for the top board to rest on as it rises helps reduce wobble
- I have about 6 feet (2 meters) of string wrapped around a spool I made using a small piece of tube glued between 2 CD disks. I pull the string at a constant rate.
- On the CD disks I have marks at every 5 seconds and labeled 15, 30, 45 & 60 seconds.
- I listen to an recording from a timer that counts off every 5 seconds.
- I have an electric candle from the dollar store that is dimmer than a night light.
- I picked up a plastic telescope finder scope for $15 on ebay. There are a few people selling new old stock that have been collecting dust on shelves and want to clear them out of their store rooms.
- I had better results with the 12" long 1/4" rod bent into an arc shape which requires the rod to be stationary and the timer wheel to push the top board up. A spacer between the timer wheel and the top board is needed.
- I tried the double arm tracker but never could get the combination to work.
I recently built one with legos, and worked pretty neatly. I could take 30s exposures at 952mm focal length. Now I got a real tracker, because the lego one had to be over a table next to the telescope!
tutorial on that please.
@@ashimayed8013 I actually don’t have a yt channel but I can tell you its basically making the lego motor spin at a certain speed that suits your own mount. For example I have a manual equatorial mount, so I had to turn the handle for rotation about 4 times an hour. You can slow down the motor by adding engranes in various layers to reach optimum speed. It took a lot of adjusting but it is possible.
@@carlosrojasrodriguez930 What you're describing is motorizing an existing manual tracking mount, not making a tracking mount from scratch. In your case all the tracking mechanics are already in place.
@@TheAnoniemo That is correct!
I think I saw it on reddit a while ago
I made one of these for Halley's Comet in 1986, got some good pictures of Hale-Bopp and hyakutake.
So awesome Nico! I remember reading about barn door trackers before buying a mount when starting astrophotography but I never had the courage to build one myself, happy to see you challenged yourself to build one and it worked really good!
Thanks a lot, great job again! For those of you who want a budget motorised barn-door-type star tracker, I suggest the batteries operated NYX Tracker, $130... It has an inbuilt laser to point Polar star and ballhead for your tripob included. I own it and it is very easy, fun and great to use.
Simplicity things encourage people to simulate you , i'm proud to know you .
This is my kind of content, love it! Apart from the build and the results, I'm also really impressed with how well explained everything was!
Great video, and it's not just money either, it is the real satisfaction that people can get from building, designing and creating something for themselves. Starting simple with any hobby also means you really appreciate moving through better and better gear as time goes on, and this is something I would never want to have missed out on.
I made a barn door tracker, to polar align it I made an app thats shows when you are pointing to the north celestial pole. I added some wooden bits to attach my phone to the tracker and used an old iphone I had. Then I use the app to polar align and double check it in the staw. Works pretty good every time. This could work for people down south too
as a patreon exclusive I need to see the entire horse that appears to be on your shirt
You are just the best content creator i've ever seen man. Making such good and clear and detailed explanations on everything . Keep going man.
Nice video Nico, my tracker like this, is over twenty years old, I still have the photos in slide format with my beautiful beloved Pentax K1000, when I was less than 20 years old. Good Times.Yours was spectacular. Congratulations clear skies of Portugal.
I made one of these barn door trackers many decades ago from design plans found in a telescope/astronomy book.
What I do remember is the dimensions of the tracker and bolt thread pitch was set so that 1 revolution around the bolt thread per minute was needed in order track celestial objects in the night sky. The device also needed to be aligned with a particular direction in the sky.
Took some interesting photographs
Absolutely amazing. Did not expect these results!
Great, Nico! Since startrackers are very expensive in Brazil (since we have to import them), my student is implementing a microcontrolled/motorized barn-door. In a near future, after some tests, we will share the project too.
Please share, i request you very much
Amazing Nico! I just want to let you know that I was looking for a cheap way to track for a long time. I’ve seen other barndoor trackers, but I have no skills with electronics and you can’t find skytrackers to buy here in Brazil. The only time I saw one around here it was so expensive that it was prohibitive. I was shooting hundreds of pictures and stacking but now you just gave me the push I needed to make my own tracker. I’m so grateful for the valuable information. Thank you so much!
Do you think this track can work with an 100mm 1.8F lens? With way less tracking time I believe. I Also have a 24mm 2.8F around that will work perfectly.
Possibly, but you would need a better polar alignment than the straw I use here. Maybe drift alignment or some kind of computer/phone assisted method. I have to study all the ways more.
@@NebulaPhotos thanks Nico. I have a green laser that’s allowed here and I know my way around at sky. But it wont be very precise for the 100mm without an octans finderscope.
@@GameBrou you can do a drift alignment. Use the telephoto lens live view and zoom on the dslr display. You might need to temporarily turn up the ISO setting to see the stars. Don't forget to reset it before taking real pictures. You can turn on grid lines if that helps gauge the drift. If you look up the offset of Polaris for your particular location and date, you can get a pretty close approximation using the laser pointer to start. It'll take some time but it is 'do able'.
@@hbmike47 thank you so much! I'll try that as soon as my tracker is ready. You guys are awesome. That's why I love astronomy. So much love for sharing the knowledge. Clear skyes to you wonderful persons out there!!
Wish i knew about this a couple years ago... oh well. But Nico i love your channel so much. Your videos are always so creative and in depth, and i love the appeal as an amateur astrophotographer. Keep up the amazing work, cant wait to watch your channel grow!
Thank you George Haig and Nico!
The reveal just look unreal. Very nice job dude
Getting the most of budget is a fun and satisfying challenge. Plus educational and inspirational for others.
Nico, this is absolutely amazing! I'm still in the financial rabbit hole but really looking forward to try this out myself in the future. Congrats and clear skies.
Very nice outcome to the finished picture.
Hi nico i just build one using your pdf guide and the video , really love the simplicity of this , im going to try to get use this with my phone when the sky clears up
Very cool, Nico! I agree astrophotography tends to be inaccessible because the cost of gear is so high. I'm sure there's a way to automate the tracker with a small electric motor, a cheap raspberry pi, and maybe some inexpensive (or 3D printed) gears. Raspberry Pi's were designed to allow school children to make robotics projects. I'm no raspberry pi expert.
Nice Nico! Small improvement - a kid's pea shooter has a slightly wider hole which will make it easier, and a plastic protection (so you can't poke your eye out).
Brilliant idea! Great workmanship! Excellent presentation! Thank you! Greetings frum Hungary!
Ive been waiting for this video! Pretty excited to build this and test not only my craftmanship as well as my photo taking/editing ability
Very good. I see the learning benefit of doing this because you need to learn the rotation, angles etc. Good job.
Let me share the fact that watching your videos is a great pleasure! You always dave so deep in details. Your voice and a speaking rate are fine for understanding by foreign listeners. And the subtitles. They do not look as automatic, do you write them by yourself? Thanks for your job, that is done really top class. What I should do is go to patreon and donate. My best wishes!
Thanks! Regarding subtitles: I let youtube make an automatic transcription, and then review it, and try to correct any major mistakes that I see.
Instead of looking down and getting a stiff neck, you could a short perpendicular projection on the rim of the drive wheel and a bracket with a perpendicular slit on end of the drive board that places the slit just outside the drive-wheel rim. (A white or silver (or glow in the dark) painted tick mark on the edge of the cd might be visible depending on how dark your environment is and would simplify the build.) Then you could just sit comfortably in a chair looking at the drive wheel more or less edge on and just rotate the drive wheel so that the projection aligns with the slit during each time interval. If you wish to rotate in smaller increments than full turns, just add more projections along the rim at appropriate intervals.
Cool idea Erik, thanks!
Now my mind’s made up I’m going to make this I love the simplicity. There are compound hinge barn door trackers with less cumulative error but the simplicity of this one is charming. Great build for a budding young astronomer
I made one of these as well a few years ago and added a motor too at a later stage.
One way to get slightly better polar alignment without having to rely on securing your metal drinking straw exactly in line with the hinge would be to use the drinking straw as the hinge pin. The next size up of tubing is typically a nice slip fit over the smaller tubing, so you can cut segments of the next size up and glue or otherwise secure them in alternating sides to each of your boards. Waxing the inner pin and the edges of each segment of outer tubing helps to keep any glue from freezing the hinge up while you're assembling it.
I would suggest using your latitude angle and a way to lock that angle in to polar north so that you have one less direction to worry about.
Great content Nico! It will be very helpful for beginners, the ones in budget and those who love diy!
Thanks Okan! Nice to talk to you, and the Stellar Xperiences team yesterday
@@NebulaPhotos Likewise Nico, it was a pleasure!
Awesome video and results! I'll be waiting for part 2 with the modifications
I love this channel. Where were you 20 years ago when I was figuring out all of this stuff. I've been out of the hobby for years and can't believe the advancements since then. I'd love to get back in but light pollution and bad weather is why I dropped out and that has only gotten worse in the past 20 years. BTW you look like Tim Roth.
Very well done, Nico. Subscribed and looking forward to the rest of your videos. (This is the first)
Wow this channel is so amazing! Interesting, different, thank you Nico! Brilliant!!! Pass it on people!
He is the best on here James. I'm no Patrick Moore but this is interesting stuff. Well Nico make it interesting in the way he puts it across and the tutorials are spot on. Best on TH-cam
I found your site while reviewing star trackers. I appreciate your attention to detail with both your videos and step by step description. I got all the parts at Home Depot yesterday and am building it today. Will try it out and let you know.
You've properly MacGyvered this Nico, very inventive approach. 👏
Thanks I liked this, you waked up new ideas in my mind!! Gracias, Great video, The metal straw is unbeatable!!!
I will create this barn door + arduino powered stepper motor for turning the nut. It will be GLORIOUS!
Excellent! Top-drawer. 5-Star as usual. Sure beats most astro videos these days on how to spend $5-10K (weekly) on scopes, mounts and/or cams.
Thank you so much! I am definitely going to try this. My only issue is the processing. I only have a regular recent iPad lol.
This is great ain't it. A couple of bits of ply and a disk. Top class tutor with a tad DIY and hey presto. A superb photo, I guess this movement could be controlled with an Arduino Uno or mega 2650 and stepper motor. A bit trial and error and you could make this work well. Not that manual didn't work. Nico proved it works with a disk and turning it manually. Anyway. You just got to love these videos
This was really cool to see, first time I really sit down and look into this 🤓, just heard about it before 😀👍
I can only say wow, seriously awesome result! I have the Omegon LX2 and have got some good results but I can’t get 2 minutes out of it - though with the light pollution around here it would be pointless trying. Look forward to the vid on the LX mini tracks and the move shoot move 👍
I made two of those about 30 years apart. Good for you!
I built a tracker (electric) year ago and it works very well. No problem with very long time exposure.
Was planning to start tracked AstroPhotography this spring, but was really debating $400 star tracker. I think this is what I am going to go ahead with and see how much can I squeeze from such an equipment. Can't wait for another 3 hours.
This totally gave me an idea to do this with a stepper motor and an arduino nano.... 🤔. This is awesome!!!
I do film photography I've been dying for a way to take pictures of the milky way and this is exactly what I've been looking for. I did everything almost exactly as instructed (except I had to use a different screw and t nut to attach it to my tripod) and it works! 15° every 2.5 seconds did the trick. I've taken a few more shots but just started a new roll of film so I gotta wait a bit to see more results. I had 2 shots that would have been great except some gnarly light pollution messed with my subject.
Thankyou Niko - was looking at the Omegon Lx3 tonight and saw your vid pop up. Definitely building this instead first. Think I'll try the laser pointer option for polar alignment and see how it goes. Awesome work!!
That’s so cool! Honestly amazed it worked so well
As a suggestion, I want to say that you should make a video on shooting of planets through smartphone on an untracked mount and stacking them . Smartphone astrophotography attracts a lot of beginner astrophotographers and I will be benefitted too. I hope that you will keep my request.
Moreover, you can also do a Milky way photo shoot through smartphone as mentioned by some one else. Thanks.
This is awesome. Great video and explanation- it's so impressive being able to get great results on a shoestring budget.
Great video as always. Astonishingly good results, encouraged to try this instead of buying tracking gear.
very cool tracker for budget astrophoto! its really great thing :)
I recall the article for the ‘scotch mount’. I did build one way back in the late 70s to strap my Zenit E to. The main investment was a ball mount for the camera, everything else was stuff laying around. But I had no real tripod or way to get any sort of polar alignment, and the lens was the stock Helios the Zenit came with. It worked but was so awkward to use that I only tried it on a couple of slides.
It will be great to see motorized barn door tracker in your version!
Everything what do you need it's a: Chinese motor "28BYJ-48 + Driver (1.6$)"
Arduino (5$) for code (code you can find this in internet for free)
Two 3d printed gear (1:4 i think will be great) "it's very cheap (less that 1$) just find who can print them for you"
And 1 meter threaded rod m5 (or different) + 2 nut (1$)
So, you can upgrade your barndoor tracker to motorized just for near 10$ (in your country prices can be different)
P.S. Sorry for my bad "France":D
Thats amazing I'm going to make 1 thanks you for sharing this with use
Y really like this. I found it some months ago when I started to look into astrophotography. And I think that this can be easily made motorized with some steeper motor and arduino.
Check out the finder on the old Edmunds Astroscan. Not the newer one. The older black bracket. It’s just two separated holes with the closest being smaller. All you need is a straight edge and two 90 degree tabs with holes. I can’t imagine a cheaper approach. Great video man. I’ve had this one on the back burner myself. Some you see take this thing to motorized as you know. You can practically go sky’s the limit. It’s a really good tip for folks to use something like Thompson’s Water-seal to condition the wood. They will warp due to humidity over time. You executed this well. There’s absolutely no need for me to make this video. I’ll just refer them to you. Clear skies.
Thank you for an excellent video. I'm really looking forwards to seeing how you refine this device.
This is super cool, I'm gonna try making one myself now
I found this both entertaining and incredibly educational. I'm sure Astrobiscuit (if you watch his channel) would be very proud of you. Well done.
Great video as always Nico. As soon i can get my hands in a ball head i'm gonna try. Waiting for video of a DSO using this tracker.
Thank you for this! I have enjoyed your videos and have learned a lot! Just getting started into this hobby and finding ways to do it without spending a lot of money is very attractive right now. I would love to see a follow up to this since you mentioned getting some upgrades on it to use longer focal lengths and comparing it with the other trackers.
That's really neat! I will definitely give it a try this summer ☺️
SO excited for the video. I requested this topic a few weeks back and you said a video is coming! yayyyyyy
For the polar alignment keep a compass ( can use the one on your smartphone) perpendicular with the tracker to find north and then you could first level your tracker with a spirit level to be perpendicular with the horizon and then stick a protractor and then keep it at the degree of the latitude on which you stay that way you can polar align easily and you and do it without even having to look at polaris
Thanks, I will try it and compare to some other methods. My guess (because I use that method for daytime polar alignment) is that it will be no more accurate than the drinking straw method, but it is good to mention for people who have no view of the celestial pole where they are setting up.
True, but atleast it is easier than the drinking straw method as looking through the straw will have a very small fov .
Yesss this is what i was hoping on you would do...but a bum w/o work , with two handy's lol
And it keeps you a bit warmer at night ..hihi
Well done Nico , am a huge fan of your videos !
Grtzz johny geerts
Very impressive Nico well done!
Can't wait for the comparison / test of the Omegon LX2 / MSM.
I'm new to it and currently I own just my regular landscape-photography gear.
Tinkering around with 200 exposures of one image is neat, but I want something better.
I find the price of the LX2 a bit hefty "for what it is" so I'm not sure if I would waste my money there.
My equipment is not that heavy - Mirrorless APS-C that weighs 1.6kg with a mounted tele.
I just find the 400 bucks for a Skywatcher pretty hard to swallow as an entrygate for something I might not like. And because it's so specialized it's hard to resell IMHO.
I'll wait for your video :)
Move-Shoot-Move phone mount. You can use that and PhotoPills with a Polar Clock to align very accurately. You could possibly make your OWN phone mount that is very similar and use a free app.
Chasing Luminance done an awesome video on this and the results were very accurate.
Awesome video BTW. I'd love to see one that tracks the ISS as it travels across the sky, with a tele-lens. I would assume it would be difficult to do.
I created a similar tracker, but with a stepper motor from some scanner or something like that. In my design, a gear threaded onto a curved spindle was rotated by the motor, creating a worm gear mechanism. I even went so far as to tinker with a programmer and manufacture a control board that would rotate the motor at the desired speed. However, I was young and lacked the patience to make the board sufficiently well, and there was always a contact issue somewhere. So, I never managed to capture anything worthwhile with that mount :D
This is my next project. Got a solid ball head that uses the same qr plates as my regular tripod; can just swap in/out. Now time to get some wood, a hinge, some threaded rod, and a couple of t-nuts.
So impressed with that reveal. Definitely my next project. wonder if I can add a motor to it from a tracking telescope.
I remember making one of these in the 80's when I was a kid. Using it with old film cameras and got decent results. I was lucky to grow up in rural Ireland, back then the skies were very dark. Probably bortle 2 maybe 1.
Very cool. I am thinking of doing something similar but driven by lego motors and gears.
Great result from such and old school diy device.
Would be interesting to see you check out the Omegon Mini Track LX2 or LX3, which are clockwork trackers. (Edit) Ha ha, should have watched to the end before commenting, looking forward to the test.
Before I upgraded for automatic tracking I did sort of the same with my big 1000/200 newtonian. It worked great! But what is always weird is to get "caught" in the middle of the night with such an instrument and then you have to explain yourself :D
Very cool! And with a budget camera too. I was thinking vibration would be an issue But apparently not so.
There's also a commercial version of the barndoor tracker for around $100, I think. It uses a laser to polar align and a small 5v geared motor to turn the drive screw. Pretty good design. The company is nyxtech. I have no connection to them but have used an early version and it works well. I replaced the rather cheap ballhead with a beefier one for more stability. The downside is you are limited to fairly wide lenses. I've used mine with a 50mm lens but would not try anything heavier.