[glend (Glen)]

Jason, AP will certainly require more power than visual observation simply because of the need to drive the imaging camera, guide camera, laptop for PHD or Metaguide, other software etc. The NEQ6 mount itself will only draw about 2 amps so you would seem to have adequate battery capacity now to operate just the mount at night without going into the red zone on discharge (provided you are not jumping all over the sky at a high slew rate, ie if your just tracking various things during imaging). There are ways to approach it to keep the power requirement at night to a minimum.

As far as the camera is concerned, I took a different tack and bought a couple of new high capacity internal batteries for my Canon 450D. The ones I picked up (on ebay) are 1600mA compared to the standard 800ma and I can run fairly long imaging sessions without having to swap batteries (which only takes a few seconds and can be done on the scope). So I have four camera batteries (2 x800ma and 2 x 1600ma). I also run my camera control via a battery powered (AAAs) remote and not an application.

The Aldi solar panel seems ok in terms of capacity but there maybe cheaper solutions around, check the amps it generates off the panel and that it does come with a controller ( which is seems to if they can onnect it directly to the battery)? If not you will need to buy a controller (only about $20 on ebay).

I take an old 80 Watt panel with me when I go to Bretti and that charges everything, including the camper batteries (150 AH), the solar controller is in the camper. I also take a generator with me as supplemental power in case of daytime cloud, etc. My scope battery box is 28AH, but I have a long AMP plug cable so that I can tie it into the camper batteries (150AH) if I need to do so. I carry two inverters in the camper so that I can run chargers during the day for the Netbook PC which runs Metaguide and the guide camera. If necessary I can run the Netbook off the camper batteries via the small inverter (it doesn't draw much at all unlike my laptop). My AC generator can run a Cetek charger to top up the camper or scope batteries as required. I only run the Netbook at night for guiding, and all images captured are uploaded to my laptop the next day (when the sun is shining), so no stacking, or processing at night - this lowers power required considerably and gives you things to do during the day.

I know Arthur has a big battery box and carries a generator with him which he runs during the day to charge (I think it also runs his fridge), and he doesn't use any solar as far as I know. Allan_L has a Waeco 36AH Thumper pack, I think with a small solar panel, to run his goto dob. Of course they are pure visual with goto dobs. Jakob images at Bretti and I believe he gets all his power (for the HEQ5, Netbook etc) from his motorhome batteries.

A Netbook is definitely a good investment as opposed to carrying a full sized laptop around with you (but I don't know if it would handle ASCOM scope applications, EQDIR etc, as I prefer to use either the hand controller and/or the Nexus wifi module I have that interfaces to my Android tablet and Sky Safari Pro).