Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - 62

S&T Test Report

for an f/2.8 or faster lens even under
the darkest skies. Telephotos such as a
typical 135-mm lens will be limited to
no more than 1-minute exposures.
I conﬁrmed this by shooting sets of
1- and 2-minute shots, each over an
hour with a 135-mm lens. The thirty
2-minute shots were all unacceptably
trailed, but of the sixty 1-minute shots,
only about one in three showed noticeable trailing. The rest were ﬁne, and
they aligned and stacked well.
However, getting a well-exposed
image in only a minute will require
either a fast f/2 lens or the use of a
higher, noisier ISO setting. Both might
be a challenge for beginners equipped
only with slow "kit zooms" and noisier,
entry-level cameras.
Part of the tracking issues stem from
the rough polar alignment possible with
just a sighting tube. That caused the
ﬁeld to drift by several degrees over the
span of an hour and contributed to the
trailing at longer focal lengths. But in
the 2-minute shots with the 135-mm
lens, trailing also varied from frame
to frame, from just acceptable to lots!
The Mini Track's kitchen-timer drive is
not an example of precision gearing, so
adjust your expectations accordingly.
A version of the tracker is available
to use in both Northern and Southern
Hemispheres (Mini Track LX2 NS for
$159), though it requires dissassembly
to install an additional gear track and
ﬂip the mechanical drive. While I did
not review that model, I would dread
trying to polar align on Sigma Octantis
using just a hollow tube! I have difﬁculty enough in Australia and Chile

1-minute

M AY 2 0 1 9 * S K Y & T E L E S C O P E

A set of ten 3-minute exposures
with a 24-mm lens aligned and
stacked well. The Mini Track is
best used with wide-angle lenses forgiving of the rough polar
alignment and tracking inherent
in the low-tech design.

using a good polar-alignment scope
with an accurate reticle.
The advertising depicts many
nightscape scenes taken with the Mini
Track. Indeed, when I saw it I thought
that this might be a great device for
nightscape images, where you shoot,
then later composite, tracked images
of the sky (for untrailed stars) with
untracked images of the ground (for
the sharpest foreground detail). With
motorized trackers that's easy to do -
you simply turn off the motor for the
ground shots.
However, once the Mini Track is turning there is no way to fully disengage the
gears, stop tracking, and have the camera
remain pointed at the same place. While
winding the clockwork mechanism to
the end of the track does stop it, doing
so turns the camera up to 15°, thus ruining your composition and alignment of
tracked and untracked images.
So this is not a device I can recommend to landscape photographers
wanting to get into tracked Milky Way
nightscapes on a budget. Nor is it suitable for advanced
projects requiring
tracking the same
ﬁeld all night, such

2-minute

t When using a 135-mm
telephoto lens, most
1-minute exposures (at
left) were only slightly
trailed. But every 2-minute exposure (at right)
showed some level of
trailing, in keeping with
the Mini Track's exposure
limit engraved on its sector gear.

as for a tracked time-lapse video.
Conventional motorized trackers,
while more expensive, do make it possible to easily shoot images for tracked/
untracked nightscape composites, or
projects requiring unlimited tracking
time, and from either hemisphere.

Recommendations
The Omegon Mini Track LX2 is an ingenious and well-made device that delivers its promised reliable performance.
There is no fuss over dead batteries,
broken wires, or mobile apps that need
programming. Just wind it up and it
goes. It might be ideal for use in winter
when the cold can kill batteries. As they
said about Timex watches, it can take a
licking and keep on ticking!
However, the price to pay is its limited abilities. I feel the Mini Track works
best with wide-angle lenses for constellation and Milky Way images. While it
could be utilized for some nightscapes,
in practice it will be usable only for
scenes where blurring of the dark
ground in tracked images might not be
objectionable.
With those limitations in mind,
the LX2 is a ﬁne entry-level tracker
for beginners. Even more experienced
photographers might like to have one
in their kit bag as a backup should the
high-tech tracker not work on that
critical night under dark skies - or you
forgot to bring fresh batteries.
■ Contributing Editor ALAN DYER
remembers the days when trackers
used to cost $1,000. He can be reached
through his website at amazingsky.com.

http://www.amazingsky.com

Sky & Telescope - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - May 2019