© Reeth Informal Astronomy Group unless otherwise indicated
Reeth Informal
Astronomy Group
covering the Northern Yorkshire Dales
Alternative power sources.
As we are all aware, there comes the time when we seek out a source of power for our telescopes. Some of us use long extension leads and rely on mains power, some buy specialist kit from Celestron or Sky-Watcher, however there are two other options.
The first is to make your own portable power tank to your own needs and design, this is beyond the practical ability of the author, so I investigated the subject of the car jump starter !
Yes, you read it here, a car jump starter. A casual search on any internet search engine will show up a wide variety, take Maplin for example, they have a Nikkai car jump starter with a built in tyre compressor, 12 volt dc power output of 9 amp hours and built in jump leads for £ 20.00 YES! £20.00 including delivery!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you compare this to a basic Sky-Watcher power tank with 7 amp hours of power for around £60.00 plus delivery ( or your own petrol costs ) which would you buy???
A Sky-Watcher 17 amp hour power tank weighs in at approximately £ 130.00, OK, it has a red light and the Halfords one does not, break out the Christmas pud wrapper you saved and BINGO, eye saving red light and £ 70.00 still in your wallet.
Why should we pay extra money for a specialist bit of kit when a general piece of equipment will suffice? I accept that the jump starter does not have a red light and that this fact alone may put people off, however spending a small amount of time in researching which equipment to buy may end up saving a you significant amount of money.
Now then, which auto guider shall I save up for ???
Links : http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-7-amp-power-tank.html