Fuel Consumption of My Scope ?

[Minotaur]

Hi all - I have a tricky question or 2 for you....

What is the base current consumption of a C8 SGT when sidereal tracking in RA only? What is the peak current consumption during a GoTo? I could do with knowing fairly precisely because I'm trying to achieve a balance between capacity, observation time & solar recharge time for a neat little set up I have just acquired. It's basically a sealed 12V 7Ah lead acid battery with a 10W solar panel for charging. I am going to be out in the wilds this weekend with no mains electricity and would like to work out in advance whether or not I will get a decent amount of observing from a full day's solar charging.

If the capacity is marginal, as I suspect it will be, I can increase the battery capacity by about 30% and still get a full charge from 12 hours of sunlight. Any more than 30% and I will need to throw more solar panels at it.

Everything depends on how thirsty the scope / mount combination is.....hence the questions. :?

Thanks in advance.

Rick

[RichieJarvis]

Great idea - I don't have the answers, but would be very interested in what you discover when you figure it all out....

[centroid]

The only way to to get a precise figure on this, is to put a Multimeter in series with the feed from the DC supply (in your case a battery), and measure the current drawn during the operations you describe.

If you own a multimeter, then set it to a suitable DC current range, and connect the leads in series with the positive supply, with the meter's positive lead on the battery side of the meter, and the negative lead on the scope side.

If you don't have a multimeter, then perhaps you'll know someone who does.

Dave

[Minotaur]

I had a feeling I would end up measuring it for myself - just hoped that someone on here might know and save me the trouble - wot a lazy git I turned out to be