Hi Scott,
I am one of the people who has posted astrotracer images.
This is the astrotracer page and the KM isn't listed. The model is getting a bit old now. I did a bit of photography with my 2006 model K10D which I think had the same 10.2Mpx sensor as the KM. You can use it but you will struggle a bit. If I remember, I used lower ISO's and tracking.
http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/engli...trotracer.html
The astrotracer is not compatible with your camera body but this is not a great loss. The astrotracer is very convenient when travelling but a small tracking mount such as the Star Adventurer mentioned elsewhere, or a homemade barndoor drive is much more versatile.
Your camera does seem to have a lot of noise (Purple/green background).
This can be reduced with combinations of some basic techniques :
1. longer exposures
2. lower ISO's
3. by taking multiple images and stacking them to average out the noise.
4. capture in raw and use noise reduction software
I did a bit of noise reduction and a reprocessing of a copy of your image downloaded from this thread. See attached.
Did you capture in raw or jpg? The raw file processors have very good noise reduction software. Even if you don't have photoshop or lightroom, you should have received a version of Silkypix included with your camera.
If you want to upgrade cheaply, you can pick up mint Pentax K5's for about $300-$400 on ebay from Japanese dealers. The K5 is now a bit dated and not the best camera on the market but for $300 you can have a lot of fun with it. You don't have to spend $3k as someone suggested.
For comparison, there is a picture in Nightscapes called Moonrise on Golden Pond
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=146519
Taken on a fixed tripod, no tracking with my Pentax K5 (2011 model)
I took 4 exposures at 15s each with a 12mm f4 at ISO6400. The four exposures were stacked. I have deliberately left the image a bit small to de-emphasise the noise.
Also here are some aurora pictures I took in Norway last year
All the exposures were at ISO 6400 for between 3s and 10s also with the K5 and 10mm f3.5 fisheye.
http://www.joe-cali.com/eclipses/PAS...ora/index.html
Hope this helps
Joe