Not nearly to the level of this project, but if you want to dabble with taking long exposures of the sky: Consider the simple "barn door tracker"[0][1][2] to try astrophotography. After all was said and done my sky was too polluted for anything worthwhile, but the simplicity of it still intrigues me, and may be an intermediate step before going all in on the OAT.
Many years ago I read an article where someone used a regular DSLR and a barn door tracker to detect exoplanets (ie planets that orbit a different star). This is what got me into astrophotography.
Seconded. I got some "great" (for me) shots using a simple barn door build of the 2017 eclipse and the neowise comet. Just needs 2 pieces of wood, a theaded rod, an esp8266, a stepper motor, a hinge, and some bolts
https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/diy-exoplanet-d...