Quote:
Originally Posted by inertia8
I cannot imagine that the goto scope's motors would be continuously drawing very much power but happy for someone who has measured it to give the details.
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I have a Celestron SLT GoTo AltAz mount. It's not as big as many of the "serious" mounts, but it's operating / power demand characteristics would be similar.
It only needs 100 mA or so to power the handset / controller, and the power demand of the motors depends on how fast it is slewing - the faster it is moving, the more juice it consumes. My SLT mount draws about 1.5 amps maximum @ 12 volts when slewing about both axes simultaneously at maximum speed, or about 1 amp if I slew about only one axis at maximum speed, but when tracking at normal sidereal rate, it only pulls about 500 mA @ 12 V.
I have a 7.2 A.hr / 12 volt SLA which I bought from JayCar for less than $30, and I can run the scope for quite a few evenings between charges. (I don't actually know how many hours in total I could get - I'm in the habit of recharging it every week or so, and it hasn't let me down yet!)