sporting scope

i am curious to know if anyone as connected a sporting scope to a k5 and howit was done and if it is worth the effort

regards stu

With a t mount adapter one can connect almost anything to a Pentax PK body, but will give up the automation of the lens features, such as; focusing, aperture, etc... One will be forced to use shitter speeds and or iso settings only, and not much else.

One could even use most any telescope connected through the PK to T mount adapter, or even a microscope. I'm sure there's many a case of having the camera body not even fully rigged onto any of optic.

But there's also a considerable drawback. If there is not a permanent mount between camera body and lens, then expect all kinds of goodies to make their way onto the sensor.

Would it be worth it? There is a risk, but it might very well be worth a try. Also, if one is not able to find a type of adapter on the market; one could easily have one fabricated through a local school or shop

I've connected both a very cheap spotting scope (£76 so not a high class job!) & a newtonian reflector to my DSLRs.
The spotting scope worked moderately on the K100d as a 1000mm f/16 MF lens (no apperture so wide open only). By the time I had my K7 I also had a F100-300 which gave better images when cropped to an equivalent FOV. Zooming in the scope didn't really gain anything even on the K100d as diffraction lost anything gained by magnification.
As a scope zooming it to the 4000mm f/64 equivalent works perfectly well.
For this there was very little effort needed as the scope included a T2 adapter, which was easily changed to a PK version.

The newtonian scope had insufficent focus movement for focusing without an eyepiece - (Prime focus is possible with µ4/3 as this has a shorter flange distance) IIRC both positive & negative projection has been possible with the Newtonian but it's hardly a portable system so hardly ever gets used!

If you already have the scope, connecting a K5 shouldn't be too dificult, though using a compact camera will be easier. From the images I've seen results depend very much on the quality of the scope.