Star Adventurer MINI Wi-Fi (SAM Photo Set) - travel mount

Star Adventurer MINI Wi-Fi (SAM Photo Set) - travel mount

The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini Wi-Fi (SAM) is a compact high-precision camera tracking platform that is ideal for long exposure astrophotography as well as time-lapse photography in daytime and night time settings.

SAM easily fits in your backpack or camera bag, making it a convenient travel companion that can venture with you into remote locations.

SAM comes with built-in WiFi and the free Star Adventurer Mini Console App for Android and iOS platforms, allowing it to be remotely controlled with your smartphone. SAM is easy to set up and to operate in all of its modes.

Although capable of supporting larger camera lenses, SAM is ideal and very simple to use for widefield astrophotography with a standard camera lens of 55 mm or shorter focal length, as only a rough polar alignment is necessary, making it ideal for all kinds of amateur photographers unfamiliar with astronomy.

Star Adventurer Mini Wi-Fi Photo Set: includes the Star Adventurer Mini (SAM) mount, ball head adaptor, polarscope and polarscope illuminator. Sky-Watcher shutter release cables can be purchased separately for most popular camera models/brands.

The Star Adventurer Mini Wi-Fi can attach to any standard tripod via its 1/4" or 3/8" adaptors. The latitude can be set by either adjusting the tilt of your tripod head to match your latitude or more accurately by purchasing the optional equatorial wedge. To fit a camera to the Star Adventurer, either a tripod ball head is required (not supplied) or the optional dovetail L-bracket. The optional dovetail L-bracket can be used in conjunction with the optional counterweight shaft/counterweight.

Some experiences from one of our customers:

Using the SW SA mini mount

The mount runs on 2 AA batteries. It will track well with batteries showing a constant red light. The manual states that it will blink slowly when voltage reaches 2.3 and not track well. This I have not confirmed.

The manual states that it will run on 5V USB. I have run it without batteries on a AC-DC converter set at 3.5V. It tracks well and shows 3.08V but the red light will blink slowly.

With the converter at 3.5V and batteries inserted it tracks well and the red light shows constantly, showing voltage of 3.08V.

Conclusion: Use the SAM with or without batteries using a DC voltage below 5. Do not be bothered about the red light blinking, and be careful that the when using a converter that the voltage does not exceed 5V. I imagine, but have not checked, that the voltage is measured only from the batteries but that they are not used when an external voltage is applied.


Regarding the wifi, it will stay connected as long as the phone is nearby. Taking the phone away will cause the wifi to disconnect but SAM will continue to run until the programmed time has elapsed.


SAM will not run without programming the photo timing. It is not influenced by connecting or disconnecting a camera, only by what is shown on the Console app.