Here's my first test processed image:
https://www.astrobin.com/402919/
Ten subs of the Southern Cross. Just fits in the field of view for this lens and very familiar for most here. No flats, darks or bias or calibration. I only debayered the ten subs, registered and integrated them then a manual stretch and put on Astrobin as a jpg.
This image is only for you to see how sharp and flat the field is and how all the stars corner to corner dont have the distortion common in ever camera lens. The glow around the bright stars I'm unsure of the cause, possibly humidity/condensation. As an astrophoto the image has no redeeming features nor do I care for processing comments of any sort so dont waste your time trolling. The claim of this lens is its sharpness and thats the only thing for anyone to comment on with this image.
As a dslr shooter this is an amazing lens, i hope that glow isnt from the lens but it might be . I still have some things to change and want to add a cover to keep the lens somewhat insultated as its mostly aluminium exterior so very cold to touch and probably will attract condensation. I'm thinking of maybe printing a sleeve for the exterior as a protection from inquisitive hands messing my focus and protect it during transport too. I do hope to get a chance of a lift to a dark site with this lens.
As for considering a tracker of some kind I have a bunch but due to the physical limitations I am now stuck with from my stroke I am unable to use them. Polar aligning and mount weight limitations and ability to handle the setup when only one side of my body works mean camera tripod is my only practical mount choice (but you can follow my sig link to donate towards treatrment if you want, just dont suggest "helpful" ideas as they wont be.
The question of balance is a good one though. I am using a Manfrotto ball head with a handle grip (not pistol grip i have on other tripods). Its a nice one handed ball head to use, smooth to move and grips firmly at any angle, plus the grip itself doesn't limit pointing direction the way the pistol grips can. My pistol grips are cheaper Vanguard units and at extreme angles the weight of my camera/lens can cause it to slip but the manfrotto is proving the best I've used. However the balance is an issue when I point upwards the grip torques easily in my hand so it could do with a weight bolted under the front of the dovetail plate for the lens to help with that... something to look into for me. I've only just added this grip to my setup, I was waiting for this lens to arrive before stripping down my setup so i only had to do it the once. Lens and camera total 1.85kg vs 1.9kg previously. With the lens hood on the Redcat is slightly longer than my Nikon 70-200 lens but its a straight cylinder too not flaring out to the front the way other lenses look. I think it goes from 51mm diameter at the front to 48mm at the rear. so it looks deceptively smaller than a comparable 200mm prime but really its about the same size and weight fairly closely. There's no electronics so its a totally manual only lens. It uses an M8 mount so most people will need a suitable adapter to attach their camera. But you could add a diagonal and eyepiece or a zwo type camera too with the right adapters. Very good lens for terrestrial photography happy with manual use and manually setting their cameras but as i cant do that any more for me this is about the best option for now. The lens is 1.65kg so too heavy for a vixen polarie tracker setup but maybe of for others depending on what camera you hook up etc. Long ago telephoto camera lenses were telescopes retrofitted with body mounts for cameras, then technology moved forward and it became possible to get the same focal lengths with regular lens technology, but the distortion towards the edges remains too large for good movement of the tech back towards telescopes. There no functional difference between an OTA and a camera lens they do the same basic job buy slightly different specific means. Its great to see the improvement in OTA technology and optics are now good enough again to bring them into the camera realm. Looking forward to the future steps, i believe there is an 80mm version in the works to step up from this lens.
steve