Travel Powerbank for Astro

[Aurorae (Sara)]

I do a lot of nightscapes or landscape astrophotography and travel considerably. In this instance, I am travelling out to a remote part of Nepal, where electricity is scarce. As I will be hiking in, I am after a really great, lightweight powerbank to help charge up my batteries and benro polaris.

I believe that luggage restricts us to a maximum of 27,000Mah per powerbank we carry on, but I need it to be lightweight. Any powerful, fast charging powerbanks like that you would recommend is wlecome.

[AnakChan (Sean)]

Depends on your needs but I've been using OmniCharge for the past 8 yrs - starting with their OmniCharge Pro (20,400mAh), Omni 20C (also 20,400mAh), and their largest Omni Ultimate (38,400mAh - supposedly largest capacity that's TSA approved).

If I do an overnight Timelapse, usually I use the Omni Ultimate - it drives the Vixen Polarie, and the Nikon D810a with capacity to spare for the next night. I guess I could have used the OmniCharge Pro too but I aim to be safe than sorry (since I'd be remote, far away from home or anywhere else).

[Aurorae (Sara)]

Originally Posted by AnakChan

Depends on your needs but I've been using OmniCharge for the past 8 yrs - starting with their OmniCharge Pro (20,400mAh), Omni 20C (also 20,400mAh), and their largest Omni Ultimate (38,400mAh - supposedly largest capacity that's TSA approved).

If I do an overnight Timelapse, usually I use the Omni Ultimate - it drives the Vixen Polarie, and the Nikon D810a with capacity to spare for the next night. I guess I could have used the OmniCharge Pro too but I aim to be safe than sorry (since I'd be remote, far away from home or anywhere else).

Thanks Sean, the Omni Ultimate seems great, but I worry I would not get through customs even if its TSA approved. Can you take along certification for permission to let that through? It is pretty pricey too and weighs 1.9kg, which is quite heavy for a backpack carry on, especially with the addition of camera gear and the benro/tripod. Also, where did you buy from Oz, I can’t find many sellers.

I believe you can have multiple powerbanks though, so I’m thinking two powerbanks that are light that reaches the same Mah as the Ultimate. Is the Cygnett ChargeUp Pro USB-C 27,000 mAh Laptop Power Bank somehow not as good?

[AnakChan (Sean)]

Originally Posted by Aurorae

Thanks Sean, the Omni Ultimate seems great, but I worry I would not get through customs even if its TSA approved. Can you take along certification for permission to let that through? It is pretty pricey too and weighs 1.9kg, which is quite heavy for a backpack carry on, especially with the addition of camera gear and the benro/tripod. Also, where did you buy from Oz, I can’t find many sellers.

I believe you can have multiple powerbanks though, so I’m thinking two powerbanks that are light that reaches the same Mah as the Ultimate. Is the Cygnett ChargeUp Pro USB-C 27,000 mAh Laptop Power Bank somehow not as good?

Chances are Cygnett ChargeUp would probably suffice. I have to admit I've been a little snotty by sticking to OmniCharge as they're somewhat on the premium end of power banks with their fancy different configuration & menu settings, etc. which, bottomline, is not really needed, but nice to have.

All the OmniCharge devices I have are from 2016-2020. In the past 5 years, they've have more optimal designs & weight. If I were to do this all over again, I'd probably pick up Omni 30C+ for airline, and Omni 40C+ for road travel.

The Ultimate is the same capacity as 40C+ but almost double the weight only for the 120W vs 100W which shouldn't really matter in most cases.

The 30C+ is actually 25600mAh and ~700g. And I feel the 20-series is just a little too low for current products that are more power hungry.

I do take OmniCharge's word though that the Ultimate & 40C+ products are TSA approved and assume that I can just waltz through an airline with them.

If I may ask, all your stuff are USB driven or do you need DC-barrel or AC-driven too? My OmniCharge Pro (20) & Ultimate has AC outlet and DC barrel outlets too for devices that don't use USB. In my case I chose 110V for AC 'cos moving from Japan, I still do have stuff that uses 100V.

But if all your stuff are only USB driven, then the USB-only OmniCharge offerings are lighter - no need for any step-up/down transformers. That weight is noticeable between my OmniCharge Pro & Omni 20C.

[gaseous (Patrick)]

I went to Nepal two years ago to hike to Everest Base Camp, and had the same concerns as you. I flew with Singapore Airlines and I got them to give me the OK for a couple of 30000mah/111wh "veektomx" power banks from Amazon (which are very good). They didn't seem to have any issues at all. Based on the airline's info, restrictions were based on watt-hours rather than milli-amp hours. At the time, you could have 2 rechargeable batteries of between 100wh - 160wh per person.