There are many projects like this, but a lot of them are done wrong: they use a straight main bolt and they don't compensate for the error in the driver motor.<p>This one is done right - the main bolt is curved, so no error (or very little error) is introduced while tracking. Good job.
The overly high tech methods used in the project amuse me: design it with a CAD system, use a laser cutter to cut the wood, design your own gears, write C program for microcontroller to driver stepper motor- (advantage: easily adjust for astrophotography from other planets). It's too much meta-work.<p>So here is my new challenge: make it using only parts and tools available from Home Depot.<p>(even so, I have to get one of these laser cutters..)
Astro-know-nothing question: why wouldn't it be more directly 'tracking' to forget the constant clock drive (which we know will always be off by some amount) and set up a suitably long sight tube on some bright star with a photo sensor at the bottom of it. When the star's light moves out of the tube, a fine-stepped stepper tracks west until it re-appears ..?