Comet 2011 L4 Panstarrs photographed from Isaacs Ridge in Canberra, Australia. Mount Taylor in the foreground looks furry because of the Astrotracer function tracking the stars.

[Ex Finn.]

Very nice capture. Thank you for sharing.

[RobG]

Very nice capture. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks! I have a couple of closer shots at full zoom, but I specifically wanted to post this image to demonstrate the Astrotracer at work.

[Acheron]

Very nice capture.
Soon it will be visible on northern hemisphere

[RobG]

Very nice capture.
Soon it will be visible on northern hemisphere

Thanks! I hope you get clear skies for it! My view was not helped by smoke from bushfires, but at least there was no cloud!

[Nass]

Cool - I was hoping to go find this at the end of the week

[RobG]

Cool - I was hoping to go find this at the end of the week

Hope you get clear skies!

[gifthorse]

Beautiful. It's supposed to appear in our skies later this week. I hope I can get some nice images.

[GeoJerry]

Nice shot! What's an Astrotracer?

[jbinpg]

Great shot ! Can't wait for this puppy to round the sun and move into our hemisphere next week. Hope there is something left of it by then.

[RobG]

Nice shot! What's an Astrotracer?

Thanks!

The short answer to your question is that the Astrotracer is software built into the K5 series cameras which help you take pictures of stars without star trails. To use it, you need the O-GPS1 unit.

The longer answer is that Astrotracer is a setting for the GPS on the K5 (K5iis in my case) which uses the 0-GPS1 unit mounted on the flash hotshoe to adjust the position of the sensor to eliminate star trails. The sensor movement is achieved using the shake reduction mechanism, so this is something unique to Pentax. There's limits to what it can do because of the limited range of motion of the sensor, but you can also improve the results by stacking a series of photos at shorter exposure times to stay within the limits of the Astrotracer. I haven't tried this yet. The suggested exposure times in the Astrotracer display are wildly optimistic. For example, last night the camera claimed it could do a 3 minute exposure, but I got this result with a 40 second exposure. The Astrotracer won't calculate the correct exposure for you, so if the sky is bright (and it was last night), a 3 minute exposure may be overexposed even if the camera managed to track successfully.

So you'll notice that in the photo I posted, the stars are dots while the hilltop is blurred by the motion of the sensor.

Great shot ! Can't wait for this puppy to round the sun and move into our hemisphere next week. Hope there is something left of it by then.

Thanks! The comet is estimated at somewhere between 8 to 30km in diameter so I don't think it's going to "wear out" in one trip around the sun!

[eric59]

Great shot
My Astrotracer is in transit.Will try it with my K-30 in a week or two.
If my attempt is half as good as yours, I will be thrilled.
just need to learn how to stack photo's next.
TFS

[tessfully]

Gorgeous artistic image... Great capture of that comet.

[RobG]

Great shot
My Astrotracer is in transit.Will try it with my K-30 in a week or two.
If my attempt is half as good as yours, I will be thrilled.
just need to learn how to stack photo's next.
TFS

Make sure you do the precise calibration before you try to use the Astrotracer feature, and use much shorter exposures than the program suggests. I haven't tried this myself but you could try using aperture priority mode to estimate the exposure, then configure it in the Astrotracer screen. I also used the 2 second self timer to ensure that the mirror is up before the shutter opens. Interesting - I had to dig for a while to confirm that it works with the K-30. Have fun! I'm looking forward to clear winter skies soon.

Gorgeous artistic image... Great capture of that comet.

Thanks Tess! I'll have to post the closer shot at full zoom.