Motorized polar alignment, N.I.N.A. plugins, INDI drivers, ESP32 firmware and 3D-printed mechanics. Everything is published as it matures, including the parts that did not work the first time.
Four threads, one goal: a night of imaging that runs itself, on hardware you can build.
Two stepper motors between tripod and mount, an ESP32, and the Three Point Polar Alignment plugin driving them until the mount is aligned. No hands on the knobs. Reference firmware runs on TMC2209 or any STEP/DIR driver.
AI Assistant lets you talk to your imaging rig, with equipment control through MCP. AI Weather reads an all-sky camera and acts as a safety monitor. OpenCode hosts a coding agent inside N.I.N.A.
OAPA for KStars/Ekos through an INDI driver, a Linux daemon that turns any single-board computer into an OAPA device, and an MCP server that exposes N.I.N.A. to any AI client.
The alt/az platform itself, designed in FreeCAD for printing and machining, plus the ESP32 and stepper driver side: wiring, currents, microstepping, and what the field nights taught about backlash.
CAD and build notes will be published as the design is validated.
I'm Michele Bergo, an electronics engineer in Padova, Italy. MBAstro is what I do in my free time: tools that make a night of astrophotography run on its own, developed independently and shared with the people who test them under real skies.
Everything here is free and open source, and it stays that way. If you build one of these, or want to, the Discord server is where the conversation happens. I also take on embedded firmware and mixed-signal electronics work; the email at the bottom of the page reaches me for that.
Questions about a build, a test report, or an idea for the platform: Discord is fastest. For anything else, or if you'd rather write, use the form.
