As everybody else has already said, yes, aberrations such as noticeable CA are normal at this fast aperture. Camera lenses are designed to be suited for a range of uses, many of which are quite different from astro imaging needs.
The most difficult one is the ability to work well at focussing distances all the way from infinity to really close up, while providing a reasonably flat field. This requires design compromises an astronomical instrument simply doesn't.
In general I think you'll find that quite a few moderately fast primes in the 35-200mm focal length range perform well, since those tend to be simple designs with few lens elements (unless they feature close range correction, IS/VR, zoom or other complications).
The 14-24 AFS Nikkor Greg mentioned is a perplexing exception with its 14 elements. It seems to be an all out no expenses spared design, including two ED and three aspheric elements. No wide-angle zoom should perform that well, but this by all accounts is a truly exceptional lens. I've got its conceptual predecessor (the 17-35), a design going back to 1999, but I haven't thought of pointing it at the sky yet…
Cheers
Steffen.