Hmmmm....

hmmm there is only one problem that i can see

It look like something Heath Robinson would have designed

[quote:3496ace15f="Jimd"]It look like something Heath Robinson would have designed[/quote)

i was thinking more along the lines as they have kept that stupid gps stuff

It's only stupid if you don't use it, I have for the Astrotracer function and it is superb, and as far as I know only Pentax offer it.
The key to good Astro photography is length of exposure, with the Astrotracer you can have an exposure of up to 5 minutes depending on focal length. A Canon will give you a max of 20 seconds at 20mm. Imagine how much more info your sensor can absorb with a 5 minute exposure...
Most of these had an exposure of 90secs One of them, the M42 gas cloud, is 420mm and 20seconds!
These are all 90 second exposures and I could have comfortably gone much longer.
No faffing around with stacking and dark frames, and I didn't need thousands of pounds worth of extra equipment including a motorised computer controlled arm to follow the rotation of the earth.
Also other manufacturers have GPS, if Pentax didn't they'd be left behind.