Celestron Powertank

Hi guys im just wondering where is the cheapest place to buy this??? Been looking for ages!

Seems about £40 in the uk in the couple of places I've looked. If you were able to find a celestron dealer here they might be able to match the price

Might be worth checking out car breakdown kits in argos/halfords/maplin too. Many have 12v 'lighter socket' outputs and torches; plus you can jumpstart your car

Lidl sell jump-start battery packs from time to time. Maplin also sell them.
The Celestron unit has a neat design about it though as it doubles-up as a flashlamp also.
Note however that there are two versions, 7amphour and 17amphour. 7amphour is very low IMHO and I would recommend something like the 17amphour for running any kind of largeish scope. If you plan to get it for the for the LX90 I would recommend that you get the 17amphour version, as it will last alot longer out in the cold than the 7amphour one. Last thing you want to happen is to head out to a remote observing site and run out of juice.
Hope this helps,

Hi

I have the 7.5 amp hour celestron powertank and it goes all night to run my lx90 8'.

I understand that an 8'sct at maximum slew draws 1 amp per hour and just tracking draws 0.1 amps. So if you are just using it to run the scope and arnt slewing everywher all night long then it will be just fine.

I also use it to run the ccd which draws 0.6 amps but it still goes for most of the night. But as you add more power requirements you will find that you will be looking for a larger battery.

The main thing is never let them fully discharge and always charge them up after every night's use, and every few weeks if you have not used them for a while

I see that maplins have a 12 amp/hour tank for €33 and which is good value, but it has only one cigarette lighter socket. Just need to get a splitter in Argus i suppose.

DB

David,
Have you any dew heater?

I see that maplins have a 12 amp/hour tank for €33 and which is good value, but it has only one cigarette lighter socket. Just need to get a splitter in Argus i suppose.

I got a 12 solar trickle charger in maplin last week. Its good enough to keep my battery topped up when not in use.