The only time I use manual focus is catching the aurora. The rest of the time, I make sure I'm set on the proper autofocus area with my Nikons. Here in Alaska, in addition to eyes, tongues, and feet being in the right position, we need to contend with battery rundown and the "shiver factor?"
Nikon also makes an 80-200 f2.8 for a full-frame SLR, but there's no VR feature, and it works fine on the Nikon digital SLRs. The trade off is the cost which is about $1,000 less than the 70-200 with VR. B&H PhotoVideo in New York normally stocks them. Good luck!