Getting power

[Carole]

Hi every-one.

I have now bought myself a barlow lens x 2 and a Leisure battery 85amp, a charger and some connectors.

I have still to get an invertor.  Mike told me to get a 240V invertor to run my laptop.  I assume this is going to come with the appropriate connectors.

I am wondering whether it will also run my ETX if the batteries go flat as I am not sure if they will last out for more than one evening.  It runs on 8 alcaline rechargeable 1.5V batteries.  I have got a mains adapter (with a 13amp plug on the end which looks as though it can be changed to various voltage 1.5v, 3v, 4.5v, 6v, 7.5v, 9v, 12v. 

I know very little about electricity so please don't blind me with science.

Otherwise I'll just bring the lot to DSC and maybe some-one technical would have a look for me.

As some-one said before, if our other halves knew how much we were spending on our hobbies.
Have spent around £285 in the last few weeks just on bits!!!

Carole

[MarkS]

It's more efficient to run your scope directly off the 12v battery. 
You'll need one of these car battery adapters:  http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/info_07043.html
Or these:http://www.celestron.uk.com/catalogues/view_item.asp?ItemID=32935&CatalogueID=272&CategoryID=3874

Wonder why the Meade one is more expensive?

Dunno if a leisure battery comes with "cigarette lighter" sockets - maybe that's one of the connectors you have.

I've also bought a cheap 12v "hairdryer" from a car spares shop.  It's great for dew prevention until I can invest in a proper dew heater kit - it also doubles up as a handwarmer!

[Carole]

Thanks for those Mark, I have saved them to my favourites for now. 

I was at Telescope House on Thursday buying my Barlow and also bought a new mains lead for the scope (for use at home to save the re-chargeable batteries) as I damaged the old one when I tripped over it in the dark recently.  Of course they no longer make them so have had to buy a new version for the mains (for use at home) which no longer comes with a cigarette lighter option, they never mentioned at all about the separate cigarette lighter socket version like you suggested even though I asked if there was anything!!!!!!  Do you think the Celestron one would fit the ETX?

Anyway, getting back to the idea of using a battery to power the scope - the trouble is with using the car battery is that it is usually too far away from where we are observing as we tend to park round the perimeter and observe away from the trees, I suppose I could move the car to the middle, I don't really want to take the battery out of the car as it is in a really inaccessible place and I hope I never have to remove it - plus have a separate leisure battery etc etc.

The connections I got which attach to the battery do indeed have a cigarette lighter socket on it, but I think that is for plugging the invertor into and I will need to run the lap top and scope at the same time.

I suppose what I was really asking was whether once I had the invertor attached if this then has a 13 amp socket on it for plugging in the laptop, could I then put a two way adapter on that and then plug in both the scope (from it's mains adapter which already has a voltage change switch on it (and I don't know which voltage to select on mains anyway) and the laptop. 

All very complicated because the voltage is probably already adapted by the invertor and then I plug the scope in which has a voltage convertor attached to that.  As I don't have much understanding of electricity I have no idea whether this would work or is safe to do!!

Hope you understand what I am getting at.

Anyway, I suppose the best thing is to take the lot down to DSC and ask any-one who is there who understands electricity, plus see how long my re-chargeable batteries last.  It is possible they might last for 2 evenings, but I don't think they would do 3.

Many thanks
Carole

[Ian]

The scope can be run straight from the leisure battery if it uses 8 1.5v cells normally. How did you damage the previous lead? It might be possible to turn it into a lead for the leisure battery. Cigarette lighter sockets are rubbish, but there is no standard alternative; there's nothing worse than pulling the connector out after everything is set up, crocodile clips might be better...

[Fay]

I run my mount from one car battery & the laptop & camera from another car battery. The laptop one ran out the other night & the night was not that cold!!!!!!

[Carole]

Thanks Ian & Fay,

Re-damaging scope lead.  All I know is I tripped over it in the dark when it was working and it hasn't worked since.  Telescope House also ran a test on it and said it was dead.  The lead comes in 3 sections, the other two parts work as I get a pilot light on those pieces, it is the section that fits onto the scope that doesn't work.  I can only assume the cable has snapped some-where along it's length.

I'll bring all the bits to DSC including the damaged lead.

As I said, my re-chargeable batteries might last the course.

Carole