I've taken a quick look at an alarm battery that B&Q do. It was 12v rated
at 1.2Ah, which is seriously under powered for the scope, I've tested and it
pulls 2amps when slewing in both alt and azi.

That's a fair amount - no wonder the C cells aren't up to it in the cold !

One of those car jump starters will do the job in the first instance. That's
what my 17Ah is in. It'll provide all the power that you need, until you
start playing with bum warmers, also when you manage to finish your master
project, it can be retired to the car, just incase of a flat battery :-).
The product code is L52AT and it only costs 19.99 including charger!

Sounds like a good start - maybe I can even dismantle it and rebox it
for the master project phase 1.
A word of warning about the power cable - Make sure that the polarity if
correct. I can't re-iterate this enough, get it wrong and the electrics of
the scope could get damaged! I've seen it happen!!!!! (not to my scope
though)

Glad it wasn't yours ;-) I'll be careful ...


Let me guess. The blinking lights. They're always popular.


Yep ;-) They look pretty simple to rustle up and would instantly label
me as a techno-geek. Is geekery possible in the telescope world ?


Erm... geekery is a compulsary qualification needed before you're even
allowed your FIRST scope! :-P

That's a relief - another field to extend my geekery in (evil laugh)

You might be interested that Maplin also do a laptop power converter that
runs from 12v. I've got one when they were on offer, and it's great. I
think it was N11BB from the maplin site, but it was on offer at £20.

Thanks, I'll check it out !

Andrew


Regards

Colin Dawson
www.cjdawson.com