Celestron Telescope Power Supplies

[dknt]

Hello there!

I'm currently looking around for a telescope and looking around at the power supplies (for Celestron), a lot of them use a car battery adapter. Since I'll probably be using it for backyard viewing mainly, going into the car to power it up won't be the most feasible. Is it possible to connect the supplied car battery adapter to a 12V cigaretter lighter to mains supply adapter? And if so how many amps should it be able to provide? Sorry if they're stupid questions... I'm a complete noob!

[hellothere123]

If you are gonna run the telescope in your backyard, why not get an ac plugin for your scope and just run it off the ac power from your house?

I'm gonna get the ac adapter and then run it off the outside outlet and when I take it out of the city I'll plug it into my ac converter in my car.

[cervesca]

I initially did something similiar, got a 2A power supply from Maplin - which was underpowered (on a C11) so I'd say to go for a more powerful one. There are plenty of cheap versions used for laptops and camping equipment. You can also use a jump starter car battery type, which will always provide enough current and will last if you recharge it consistently - and also means your not trailing long leads.

PS The power switch on the mount is a very cheap version apparently its now recommended not to use it and power off/on by unplugging the power lead - had broken on my mount so I had to get my brother to solder it permanently on!

[dknt]

If you are gonna run the telescope in your backyard, why not get an ac plugin for your scope and just run it off the ac power from your house?

I'm gonna get the ac adapter and then run it off the outside outlet and when I take it out of the city I'll plug it into my ac converter in my car.

Yeh I was thinking about that. The one Celestron sell say it would work, but being made for american sockets with a much lower voltage than in UK, would it pose a problem, or would a socket adapter sort that out, without any problem?

I initially did something similiar, got a 2A power supply from Maplin - which was underpowered (on a C11) so I'd say to go for a more powerful one. There are plenty of cheap versions used for laptops and camping equipment. You can also use a jump starter car battery type, which will always provide enough current and will last if you recharge it consistently - and also means your not trailing long leads.

PS The power switch on the mount is a very cheap version apparently its now recommended not to use it and power off/on by unplugging the power lead - had broken on my mount so I had to get my brother to solder it permanently on!

Right I see, so would something that gives 5 Amps be enough, for example? I was also looking at the power tanks they sell, but I'm not planning to move the telescope around much yet. (I'll also probably forget to recharge it, when its in storage!)