If you have access to tools you could do my solution to the tripod problem. I built one for about $50 USD and am using a new old stock manfrotto 3047 head that I paid $25 or $30 on it. The safe load capacity of the tripod is easily 500 lbs but that wasn't part of the design goals but just a result of the materials available in the store at the time that were also the cheapest. I stick the K-3 + battery grip and
SMC A* 400 f/2.8 ED [IF] monster lens on it without any issues. I have also stuck the
MTO 1000mm f/10 lens and 2x converter on it without issue.
A while back I
posted some images of it that should be good enough for others to replicate their own version of it. I used 2x4 boards because they were the cheapest available and while I could have used smaller bolts but the store didn't have enough so I used 1/2 inch bolts (12.5mm). I don't know what board sizes are available where you are but standard framing lumber would work. I used a 3/8 inch bolt running through the top so that I could attach any standard tripod head to it so that bolt is different from the others and is the only one where a specific size was needed.
If you don't have a light pollution filter a good cheap starter option for dealing with light pollution is to get a
Hoya Red Intensifier. I have 2 of them that I use for astro all the time, one in 77mm and the other in 49mm. The 49mm one lives in the A* 400/2.8 and I stick the 77mm on what ever other lens I'm using with some adapter rings. I haven't tried any of the real light pollution filters as they are more expensive but the results I've experienced in my very light polluted backyard (bright bortle 8 with a 9 about a mile away) are impressive. I have been tempted to get the NiSi Natural Night filter as it looks like it would work better but it is more expensive and there is other equipment that I would benefit more from first.
Here is
a single shot of M42 with that 400/2.8 lens on that tripod using astrotracer. This was a throwaway shot where I was checking things after first setting up and the lens was still coming to temp so the coma is bad. I did some processing of it in RawTherapee but it is not a stack. Also this was from the dark bortle 5 area that I go to and not my backyard but I still used the Hoya Red Intensifier in the lens.
