Lego Star Tracker - Boost Program

Still Cloudy

When I started this blog, I was really hoping that I'd be taking lots of photos and this would be my opportunity to share them all with you.  Unfortunately, the weather here in Southern Poland has other ideas.  Since November 1, there have only been 3 clear enough nights to shoot, and as you know, I've been testing away on the tracker.

So, since I don't have any cool pictures to share, I thought I'd spend a little time this week to share the Lego Boost program that I'm using to control the tracker. 

Keep reading to learn how really simple it was to control the Lego Star Tracker with this app.

The Pain of Polar Alignment

Time for the Polar Scope Align Pro App

Since I've started my foray into the wonderful world of DIY star tracking for astrophotography, the single most frustrating part of this endeavor has been to polar align my devices.  It's something that sounds real simple to do in theory - position your device so it aligns with the earth's rotational axis.  Not to mention in the Northern Hemisphere, we have a nice object in the sky to help in Polaris.

But as in life, the simple things always turn out to be way harder to do than they look.  I'm burning precious imaging and testing time tweaking and tuning my polar alignment to get 60 second exposures.  And I'm never quite sure if it's my alignment or my tracker design which is leading to failed photos.  

I've found an app to help with this so read on to learn about my new plan.

Lego Star Tracker V6 - Test 2 - Changes and Challenges

Over Improvement

I suppose I got a little too ahead of myself after the first test of the sixth version of the Lego Star Tracker yielded such solid and consistent results.  I had a list of small tweaks that I wanted to make and I completed those and added a few more along the way.

So imagine my surprise as the second night of shooting with this version ended up being dreadful.  I couldn't figure out at the time what was going on.  But upon further review, I was able to piece it together and the good news is I know what to fix - or rather undo.

Bortle 2 Zone Bummer

All I See Are Clouds

After watching the weather forecast for the past 2 weeks, I certainly didn't have my hopes up.  Nothing but rain and snow.  So I was simply treating this past weekend as a scouting mission for a future visit.

My wife and I took a quick trip down to Osławica in Southern Poland in the Eastern Carpathian mountains just to get away together for a couple of days.  This was the first time in 17 years that we've been alone together so it was almost a bit strange.  We did what any parents of four boys do when they escape the asylum of normal life for even a moment - we slept.  We slept a lot.

 View Outside Our Window in Osławica

We did manage to get out for a nice hike on Saturday, but the skies stayed stubbornly overcast during our entire time there.  It's a shame because even though it was overcast, it was dark dark dark at night.  Given how remote the region is, I'll definitely head back down when there's a better chance to take some photos.  It's only a 3 hour drive from Krakow so it'd be worth it. 

While I didn't get to take any photos of the sky, it was a really fun trip and we enjoyed our time immensely.  Can't wait to try and do it again!  

Lego Star Tracker V6 - Test 1 - High Hopes

It's A Start

Conditions were far from ideal but there was enough of a break in the clouds to cram in a quick test of the Lego Star Tracker version 6.  Seriously, in the entire month of November, there was only one clear night that was suitable for imaging.  Well, that's how it goes in these parts I suppose...

But hey, a test is a test and I was able to learn a lot.  My results tell me I'm not quite there yet, but I've made significant progress and despite the challenges I faced this evening I had the most consistent results with the tracker to date.