Nice one, Scott! A nice lightweight and high quality set up there, which is good to take out to dark skies for those super wide shots.
I'll say to you what I'd say to everyone thinking about a star adventurer, "why not the sky watcher AZ GTI with eq bundle?". Theyre very similar in price, weight and probably in build quality. The bundle is available from a bunch of places, I got mine from andrews communications.
background reading
https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/3...r-for-imaging/
I see two main (and I think huge) reasons to go the AZ GTI
1) GOTO - even with a focal length like the redcat, a GOTO will be nice for imaging. 400-500mm FL OTAs will be in the weight capacity range with the GTI as well, and this will really benefit from GOTO. As will visual sessions!
2) Guiding in RA and Dec. I'm not 100% sure, but I think even the new star adventurer only has one live axis? This is also absolutely massive, especially with longer focal lengths.
Looking at the two, I see the star adventurer has a polar scope in its favor, but I doubt you'll use it much/ever in the southern hemisphere, and especially if you're using the ZWO camera connected to a computer... sharpcap polar align is a cinch, and even without, the AZ GTI has the synscan polar align set up which is the same as sky watcher bigger mounts, you dont even need to be able to see the pole for that one
You mention that you don't want your purchases to become redundant later on, and I think this is another vote for the AZ GTI, it must be one of the best grab and go GOTO alt az mounts around. The AZ GTI even has encoders on each axis, allowing for their freedom find feature. I wonder if those encoders give any benefit in tracking? Thats speculation and shouldn't come into it
Anyway, I bet they will both be great, but I reckon the AZ GTI will give you more varied good times for longer
JP