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You'll have a lot of fun!
I use a small pair of pliers to make sure the tightening screws are very tight for my D800E and 14-24 which is very heavy. I have come out in the morning to see my camera dangling at odd angles because it unscrewed itself when it hit a certain angle. I also had to use an adapter for the screw that goes into the base of my ballhead. It had a rubber washer on it which was preventing getting a fully tight connection. I removed it and tighten it very hard to the ballhead mount to prevent it unscrewing itself.
Getting the Vixen recommended tripod may solve some of that. My Manfrotto units all have larger threaded holes than the 1/4 inch screw on the Polarie.
I use rechargeable Energizer batteries and they last for about 4 hours perhaps 5. You can get a usb battery pack (ebay for under $30). I got one somewhere and may have to use it again as I want to be able to do 6hour time lapses (D800E grip with D4 battery gives virtually unlimited power whereas standard D800E battery no grip lasts maybe 4 hours, I imagine 5D3 may be similar). I got a nice DSTE grip off ebay which also has an infrared controller as well. It with the battery cost about $68. Money well spent and its really well made. The Nikon factory grip costs a three hundred dollars or something stupid.
I look forward to seeing your images using it. You should expect to have a lot of fun! Its also very engaging with the outdoor night sky - more so than CCD imaging which is mainly in front of a laptop.
Greg.
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