The star tracker is one of the most accurate components for satellite attitude determination. With the development of the nano star tracker, it is compatible for application on small satellites. However, the drawback in dynamic property of nano star tracker has limited its extensive applications. The principal objective of this study is to introduce a system-on-a-chip (SOC) based nano star tracker with enhanced dynamic property. A morphology based image processing approach was realized based on single FPGA to achieve real-time star extraction, even from a blurred image. Such nano star tracker has been developed and tested, and field experiment results indicated that its dynamic range was up to 4°/s with a data update rate of 30Hz. Moreover, the orientation of the satellite with developed nano star tracker on board has been analyzed based on the telemetry data. Thus, such nano star tracker could promote its applications on small or agile satellites
