Shoot the Milky Way like a Pro!
Meet SAM — the Star Adventurer Mini. Sky-Watcher’s extremely popular family of star tracker mounts have helped revolutionize the lightweight astrophotography market, making it easier and less expensive to enter into what can be a very challenging hobby. Now, we’ve made it lighter and easier. SAM is a user-friendly, multi-function mount to satisfy all your long exposure photography needs for creating unbelievable nightscapes, lunar and solar eclipses (with proper solar filters), deep space astrophotography, and stirring time-lapse videos.
- Ideal for wide-field photography or lightweight celestial viewing.
- Free Star Adventurer Console app for total control of the Star Adventurer Mini
- Customizable speeds including sidereal, solar, and lunar
SAM is a high precision, extremely portable and stable tracking platform for sidereal, solar, and lunar tracking with automatic DSLR shutter release control. It is small and light enough to easily fit into a camera bag or backpack, making it an ideal mount for the photographer or videographer on the move.
Whether you’re looking for a tracking platform to capture wide-field images of the Milky Way, or seeking a compact travel mount, SAM is a necessity for astrophotographers of every skill level. This high precision, portable celestial tracking platform can transform almost any tripod into an equatorial mount, assisting photographers with long exposures of the night sky. SAM breaks from the mold of traditional equatorial mounts with an abundance of add-on accessories to complement wide-field astrophotography, nightscape images, or time-lapse photography.
- Polar finderscope with illuminator for easy alignment with Polaris
- DSLR camera interface with automatic shutter control
- V-style dovetail saddle, with ability to mount a ball head adapter for 360 total sky pointing
A Mobile Platform
With the free Star Adventurer Console app (for iOS and Android) you can customize your tracking speeds, choose between sidereal, solar, and lunar, or customizable presets useful for time-lapse videos. SAM is the perfect learning tool for beginners with no polar alignment experience. Setup is a cinch using the included illuminated polar finderscope. Once aligned, users can attach their camera and activate sidereal tracking to start photographing the Milky Way or deep space objects like nebulae and even galaxies millions of light years from Earth.
Easy Integration with Any Tripod
The declination assembly uses a specialized Vixen-style saddle plate for attaching cameras, tripod heads, or optical tubes. Attaching a ball head to this Vixen-style plate provides most users with enough flexibility to point their camera around the sky freely while maintaining tracking. The Star Adventurer tracking platform can attach to a tripod using a 3/8-inch thread socket and includes an adapter for ¼-20-inch thread sizes.
Automatic Shutter-Release Control
No need for an intervelometer timer with the Star Adventurer Mini! With completely programable shutter exposure settings, the SAM can trigger a DSLR using the auxiliary shutter release cable. Once the camera is plugged into the mount and a shot is fired, it will continually shoot for the programed exposures until the cable is removed.
With a payload capacity of 3 kg (6.6 pounds), the Star Adventurer Mini is exceptional for nightscape photographers, traveling astronomers and anyone in need of a small tracking mount.
Customize your Setup
In addition to the Star Adventurer Mini mount, several add-on accessories are available. The equatorial base allows this platform to polar align and track in the RA axis, turning a conventional photo tripod into an important astrophotography tool. Both axes also feature clutches, allowing users to aim the Star Adventurer Mini without losing polar alignment. For users photographing nightscapes or deep space objects, the optional ball head adapter provides more freedom to frame images, while delivering consistent tracking.