Sky and Telescope - December 2017 - 59

device that can do both!" The question
now becomes, how well?
To ﬁnd out, I tested an early production unit, on loan from Paciﬁc Telescope
Corporation, Sky-Watcher's distributor
in Canada. My test unit was ﬁnished in
red, but I was assured that units sold in
the United States and elsewhere with a
black ﬁnish differ only in appearance.

App-Based Programming
The biggest difference between the Star
Adventurer Mini, or "SAM," and other
trackers is that to get it to do more than
simply track the sky, you ﬁrst have to
program it using its free app, the SAM
Console, available for iOS and Android
devices through their respective stores.
Your device connects to SAM via an
ad hoc WiFi network SAM sets up. Once
the device sees SAM, the app can then
connect to it to program in key parameters for motion-control time-lapses:
how many shots you want, at what
interval, plus the angle over which you
want your camera to move, and over
what time period.
Like the original Star Adventurer,
SAM has a "Snap" port that connects
your camera to trigger its shutter, ﬁring
your programmed number of shots at
the exposure duration you want when
the camera is set to Bulb. Sky-Watcher
offers accessory cables for a variety of
camera brands and models at additional
cost. SAM also accepts every accessory
available for the original Star Adventurer mount, including a Declination
axis and counterweight.
As with all motion controllers made
for time-lapse photography, the mount
is a "shoot-move-shoot" device. It makes
incremental moves only between exposures when the shutter is closed. It does
not turn during the exposure, in order
to keep ground detail as sharp as possible. This is a big advantage over repurposing other astronomical sky trackers
to do time-lapses. Using those devices,
users tip them up to aim their rotation axis at the zenith, then set them
turning, usually at the standard sidereal
rate. But the tracker is always moving,
even during exposures, and there is
little or no control over the amount of

u The Star Adventurer
Mini has two mounting
surfaces, each with a
3
/8 -inch bolt hole. The
3
/8 -to-¼-inch threaded
adapter ring is supplied. One surface,
with a removable
plate called the Tripod
Connector (at left), is
for mounting the Mini
vertically for timelapse shooting and
panning. The other
surface (on the right)
is for mounting the
Mini as a polar-aligned
tracker.

swing or speed. By contrast, SAM is a
fully programmable motion controller,
competing with the likes of Alpine Lab's
Radian2 and SYRP's Mini Genie.
The downside of this programmability is that it complicates the more
standard function of simply tracking the sky at the sidereal rate. Getting SAM to track for traditional long
exposures of constellations or the Milky
Way requires setting up a sequence of
shots, whether or not you use SAM to
actually control the camera. Out of the
box, you can't just ﬂip a switch to turn
on the tracking motor and have SAM
work. You always have to connect to it
via WiFi to program in what you want it
to do that night: pan or track?
However, the app allows you to program in a number of preset routines and
then have SAM automatically start your
sequence when it's powered up. What I
often did was save a preset and load it

with SAM set to "auto-run." When powering up next time, SAM would start the
sequence without any need to connect
via WiFi. So, if you have several nights of
tracking shots planned, that's a convenient way to get SAM going without
needing to program it each night.

Connection and Powering
Connecting my iOS devices to SAM's
WiFi took a few seconds but always
worked ﬁne. But it does mean disconnecting the device from your normal
network, if only temporarily. To conserve
battery power, SAM can be told to shut
off its WiFi once a sequence is running.
While the app can keep track of the
sequence, telling you how many frames
have been shot and the time remaining,
this "Status" is available only if SAM's
WiFi remains on and connected. I
would like to see a free-running display
of a sequence's progress.
t t SAM broadcasts an adhoc WiFi network. Other than
an on-off switch, the unit
has no hardware controls.
Settings can be applied
only through the free SAM
Console mobile app once a
phone or tablet is connected
to its WiFi.
t The tracker can be
instructed to turn off its WiFi
once a sequence is running,
to conserve battery power.
The "Auto-Run" option also
tells SAM to start the last
programmed sequence automatically on power up.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . c o m * D E C E M B E R 2 0 17

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