Portable battery power (star tracker, asiair, guidescope)

[yyD70S]

Good day,

I am currently doing untracked/fixed tripod widefield astrophotography (a DSLR & camera lens) and would like to take the next step (up, hopefully).

I have an old star adventurer 2i (which I have not started to use) and would like I’ll be getting an asiair (a gift) to basically assist with polar alignment & plate solving (guiding will be a latter step). I was also gifted an “old” Celestron Powertank LT (12V, 3A).

I don’t drive (thus ruling out car batteries) but I do plan to travel overseas/outback (meet flight requirements for lithium batteries) for dark skies. I don’t think I’ll move upwards to full high focal length telescope & EQ mounts; I’ll be happy if in 2 years I can upgrade (max) to say the Redcat 51 coupled with the AM3 (still sticking to widefield) as age has caught up with me.

I don’t think the Celestron Powertank Lithium is up to it if I want to connect the 12V 3A to the ASIAIR while at the same time, have the ASIAIR power the AM3 harmonic mount (even if it may power the Star Adventurer 2i (not GTI)… trying to future proof so to speak).

Most (forum members) would recommend at least a 12V 10A; many suggested even higher on the AMP. Problem being, some suggested models (chins, telentcell) do not ship to Singapore… most batteries don’t ship overseas.

Need all the help I could get to proceed please. Many thanks in advance.

[hiewliwen]

You might want to consider the power tak listed here: https://www.singastro.org/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=51108
It has 50Ah of capacity.

[Hagenuk]

Sorry to hijack this tread since we are on the same topic but I'm want to know what are the battery options which are airline friendly if I want to bring my equipment to the US during my holidays ?

I have to power:
1. ZWO AM3(12v),
2. QHY268M(12v) main camera
3. QHY5II(5v) guide camera (power from USB)
4. Mele quieter 3C(12v) mini PC
5. ZWO EAF(gen1 - 12v)
5. Pegasusastro powerbox (12v)

Anyone can share your experience when travelling far ?

Thanks

[akdwivedi]

for a star tracker like skywatcher star adventurer, I have used an anker 28600mha power bank. Found a usbA to mini usb (thats the port on star avdventurer, a usbc- power plug (one of asiair pro) and it worked fine for some 3-4 hours. very portable as well.

I used the same for az-gti and asi air pro combo. but if you are running a cooled camera, they draw too much power and you might have to power it separately - one cable from power bank to asi-air pro (which powers the mount as well) and another cable to camera.

With Am5/am3, the equation changes. you are better off with a bigger battery like 50000mha or so. I bought one from a bro on carousel. forgot how much I paid but it was north of 250.. this has usbc pd100 poer, one dc 12Vx10A and one cigarette lighter 12vx10A. 10A power is good enough to power both the mount and camera via asiair plus.