About & Contact (obsolete)

In 2014 I discovered astrophotography and built my own barn door tracker to test the waters. At that time the cheapest star tracking mount on the market was $300, far too much for me. So a barn door tracker was a better way to go. 

I found that I enjoyed building the tracker almost as much as I enjoyed taking pictures. So I built another one for my brother, this time using a stepper motor to more finely control the rate of rotation (DC motors vary in speed with temperature and voltage). 

When my brother saw it, the first thing he said is, "It's big." Aaaand he was right. When it came time for my annual backpacking trip into the Rockies, I wasn't exactly keen on hauling it 50 miles into the wilderness. So I started designing another one, this time with backpacking in mind, for compactness and ease of use. 

But it still had room for improvement: a hinge was needed to make setting up the drive rod easier; a laser for alignment would ease setup and prevent cranking my neck at weird angles to sight the tracker; and I quickly found that 9V batteries aren't really designed for this kind of use. Thus was born "Rev 0" of the Nyx BDTracker.

I thought it was kinda cool, so while I was at it I built an extra 10 to give to friends and any redditors that showed interest.

I was overwhelmed by the positive response from redditors, so I decided to make more. I improved the design a bit more and am now happy to offer it as a permanent product for the community! 

If you ever have a need to contact me, including issues with your Nyx Tracker, email me at Mark@nyxtech.us