Recommend a power tank?

[Pottage]

Can anyone recommend me a decent power tank please?

The lovely people at First Light Optics sent me this link and said Maplin are doing a good deal on these at the moment, but the reviews on Maplin’s website are poor http://www.maplin.co.uk/3-in-1-portable-jumpstarter-383992 .

Admittedly I only need the thing to power a telescope and not jump start a car, but being a noob to all this I’m not sure how much juice a GOTO scope requires. I would prefer not to get something that is liable to conk out after 5 minutes after I’ve trekked into the middle of nowhere with it.

Also, I had a look at these in Maplin this morning and they seem awfully heavy and cumbersome. Are all power tanks all like that? I suppose the upshot of this new hobby is that I will eventually end up with incredibly toned arms!

I need to power a Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT.

Thanks all.

[ScubaMike]

Powertanks using lead/acid accumulators will by the nature of the cell, be heavy.

There are lighter accumulators available, but these tend to be more expensive, and hold less charge.

I worked on 2A for my mount when working out what size accumulator I wanted. That's probably OTT, but better that than being under.

BTW, the font colour you are using makes it very difficult to read your post.

[Neil McRae]

Pottage

I bought a sealed 12 A/H lead acid battery which I use for my 200P and EQ5 mount. It is not heavy and lasts so far without any problems a 3 hour session. It is portable and I use my car battery charger to replenish the charge. If you intend to have dew heaters etc. running off your battery just upgrade the capacity.

Neil

[Astronut1982]

I've got 2 17ah powertanks, one from maplins:-

Heavy-Duty 5-in-1 Jump Starter : Jump Starters : Maplin Electronics

& the other one which I believe is very similar to the celestron powertank is this skywatcher one:-

SkyWatcher Rechargeable 12V 17AH Power Tank

The one you were recommended doesn't seem to have enough power at 7.5ah. My 17ah ones work for about 3 - 4 hours meaning you would get much less with the 7.5ah one. I haven't been too impressed with the skywatcher one though so I'd go with the Maplins one if you were going down the powertank route.

One other alternative is to go down the deep cycle leisure battery route. Because of the way in which we use use power, the lead acid batteries aren't ideal I've been led to believe. The deep cycle ones however, are better suited to our type of use & will last much longer each charge. The only other thing you need after buying the battery is to buy apaptors like these for it:-

Astronomiser - Automated Astronomy and AstroImaging Solutions

& then buy a smart charger like this:-

Halfords | Halfords Fully Automatic Battery Charger

This is what I have recently done & I'm very happy as I can now easily power both of my scopes all night long.

Jeff

[faulksy]

i use a 70amp hour car battery heavy but powers 4 due heaters and my goto also have enough reserve to power 12v hair dryer if im cold or to demist.

[todd8137]

i have the skywatcher one it works a treat ,it powers my goto 90mm frac,and the fan for the 12" reflector it seems to stay charged for a good 3 weeks with a couple of hours use a night

[telesto]

Hi i have a celestron 10amp power tank and its never let me down over the 18 months iv had it and the red torch on it is very useful under dark skys and its not to heavy,good luck with your choice

clive

[M4lcs67]

The one I use is the Maplin 3 in 1 Powertank. Works a treat, however they need to be kept topped up at all times otherwise the battery will cease to function over time. It does seem to go against all logic. All other forms of rechargable battery say that they need to be run down periodically, but with these lead acid batteries in the powertanks you should never ever do it otherwise you will wreck it. Looking at your previous post you got the powerlead when you bought the scope?????