blast those batteries!

Yep! - there's the 1.2v - 1.5v discrepancy.

Also, rechargeables tend to 'die' suddenly when they run out. They give their full power until a second or two before they give up completely.
Non-rechargeables on the other hand, tend to fade out gradually.

Some electronics 'prefer' the fade-out method, and some 'prefer' the sudden loss of power.

I have a Kodak digital camera that states in the manual to 'Use only rechargeable, or lithium batteries' and not to use standard or alkaline batteries, because they can cause the camera to shutdown improperly, and maybe 'crash' the electronics if they start to fade.

All this feedback clears up a lot of confussion for my old brain. I think I will go with Stephen's suggestion.

Thanks all.

Being only a humble carpenter and not understanding these new fangled electronic things I have tried www.radionics.ie with great success and they're very efficient and supply almost everything (including higher voltage re-chargables) for small money, unfortunately they dont have a good stock of hardwoods,but such is life :roll:

I looked into getting the battery packs for the UK previously but when I phoned Telescope House they reckoned it'd cost me a fortune to get it posted and recommended I buy it locally. I ended up getting one in Argos for around €70 and I'm very pleased with it. However, Lidl/Aldi have stocked similar units that have the same voltage and last just as long, yet they cost less than half the price of the Argos unit. Might be worth keeping any eye out for them...
As for the cigarette lighter extension cords, that's all fine and good until you run the battery down and you're stuck up in the Wicklow mountains or somewhere...

I asked a farmer if I could use my scope in the middle of his field, he said yes, but I couldn't drive my car across. Jeez, I was exhausted by the time I pushed it across there. :lol:

Ya poor thing! Try towing it with the farmer's tractor next time!

Normal batteries are about 1.5 volts, rechargables are about 1.2 volts.

Well I'll be damned! I've never noticed that. You may have just solved my problem with my ETX70. I've never managed to get it to work since my first night out with it, but then, I've only been using re-chargables since then! :shock:

Andy McCrea at North Down Telescopes had TRONIC Battery Packs for £18. Unfortunately, I was a bit late and they were all gone before I had a chance to get one. Andy promised me though that he'd let me know when he gets more in.