Are there any smartphone/iphone apps out there that you can use to control the camera?
I've seen a couple for android that basically make use of usb host to enable live view through your phone or tablet. Not quite as swish as the new Canon slrs that do it wirelessly, but still kinda cool. I can see the merit of having a tablet positioned next to a camera, with the screen facing the model/you, so you can compose everything "on stage".
Could you also use that flickr group that automatically identifies the stars for you? Put one of the photos from the stack in the group and hope it says Polaris is there?
I've seen a couple of different ones, none I've looked into too much mind. I seem to remember there was one that used the headphone jack a specialist cable they made and the software to fire the trigger but that needed a cable release port. Don't think I've seen any that use IR to fire them off but I don't think many phones have IR these days, bit of a shame or it'd be idea.
I'd love the idea of having a tablet connected up so you could see the results straight away especially with something like this were you can't see any of the shots until you stop taking photos which might mean you've just wasted half an hour or so. Hmm got me thinking about the wlan adaptors for nikon, it won't work the same as the D4 where you can get live view through it like the Canon's but it would at least dump the picture over wifi onto something like a laptop or tablet, the official ones are expensive but I wonder if someone's managed to DIY a one together.
I've thought about putting up one of the photos from the lighthouse startrails as its quite a good photo by itself, might do it for both just so I can see what was there, thats a handy group when it works.