Originally posted by k5astro: This is the problem with Pentax astrophotography in that there is only one app I know of that can control the pentax and that is Kstars.
Getting a Pentax camera to work with the
NINA file camera is pretty trivial. Not true native support sadly, so you'll need some way to trigger the shutter (I use the SNAP port on my mount, but you could use a serial-shutter release cable) and then some tether software to download each image onto the computer. I started with the Pentax Forums WIFI & USB Tether, but as it relies on the SDK it is horrible unreliable, and will randomly decide to stop transferring images... not great if you want to set up, shoot and go to bed. Now I use pktriggercord - with the right CLI command it'll just sit there all night downloading every image NINA tells the camera to take - that means full support for the plate solve function (via ASTAP), focusing and proper imaging. As I use a cable release, NINA will happily vary the exposure time (focusing with 180 second exposures ain't fun) and, of course, hold off taking the next exposure while it waits for PHD2 to finish it's dither.
I should really type up a guide for it!
The downside of NINA is it is Windows only, though that also means ASCOM, which is stable and supported by pretty much everything - no problems integrating any other astro-hardware here. I have even had it set up so I had main imaging camera through the 'scope, and my K-1 strapped to the top with NINA coordinating both cameras when it came time to dither or focus.