Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar?
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem. Jon
Some of the generators are pretty quiet these days, but I would think a power tank or car batter would do just fine. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem.
Jon
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What's a power tank? That sounds interesting. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 5:53 PM Some of the generators are pretty quiet these days, but I would think a power tank or car batter would do just fine. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem.
Jon
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Joe, What you could use is a automobile battery and charge it with a battery charger. If you have a 12-volt adapter for your computer you could use that directly. If not, buy a power inverter (available just about anywhere) and run the computer on 110 VAC using the battery and inverter. You can get inverters fairly cheaply at Walmart or Radio Shack but you must insure that the output amperage is enough to power your computer. I bought mine at Radio Shack. You could run your lap-top all night on the external battery without running out of power. If you wanted, you could charge the external battery by hooking it up to your car with jumper cables and running your car a short while. This works well for me. Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Bauman" <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:59 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? What's a power tank? That sounds interesting. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 5:53 PM Some of the generators are pretty quiet these days, but I would think a power tank or car batter would do just fine. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem.
Jon
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Also note that battery output drops considerably with temperature. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Rodger C. Fry Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:31 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? Joe, What you could use is a automobile battery and charge it with a battery charger. If you have a 12-volt adapter for your computer you could use that directly. If not, buy a power inverter (available just about anywhere) and run the computer on 110 VAC using the battery and inverter. You can get inverters fairly cheaply at Walmart or Radio Shack but you must insure that the output amperage is enough to power your computer. I bought mine at Radio Shack. You could run your lap-top all night on the external battery without running out of power. If you wanted, you could charge the external battery by hooking it up to your car with jumper cables and running your car a short while. This works well for me. Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Bauman" <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:59 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? What's a power tank? That sounds interesting. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 5:53 PM Some of the generators are pretty quiet these days, but I would think a power tank or car batter would do just fine. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem.
Jon
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Rodger, That sounds like a great setup. I will look into making the change. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 10:04 PM Also note that battery output drops considerably with temperature. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Rodger C. Fry Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:31 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? Joe, What you could use is a automobile battery and charge it with a battery charger. If you have a 12-volt adapter for your computer you could use that directly. If not, buy a power inverter (available just about anywhere) and run the computer on 110 VAC using the battery and inverter. You can get inverters fairly cheaply at Walmart or Radio Shack but you must insure that the output amperage is enough to power your computer. I bought mine at Radio Shack. You could run your lap-top all night on the external battery without running out of power. If you wanted, you could charge the external battery by hooking it up to your car with jumper cables and running your car a short while. This works well for me. Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Bauman" <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 8:59 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? What's a power tank? That sounds interesting. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 5:53 PM Some of the generators are pretty quiet these days, but I would think a power tank or car batter would do just fine. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem.
Jon
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There are several versions out there. I didn't think laptops required much power, but my laptop requires about 20V at about 4 amps. That would be about 7 amps at 12 V. Celestron makes one that is 17 amp hours (they also make a 7, and Orion has a 12), which means it would work for about 2.5 hours. Not as much as I had hoped, but perhaps coupled with the laptop's battery it might be enough. The screen and the disk drive require the most power, so if you don't need those much you'll be better off. You can set your disk drive to turn off after a period of non-usage even when it's plugged in to something, but I guess it needs it to record the images. If you're doing a few long exposures it would be better than a bunch of short exposures I guess. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+cs2560=gmail.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+cs2560=gmail.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Joe Bauman Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:00 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? What's a power tank? That sounds interesting. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 5:53 PM Some of the generators are pretty quiet these days, but I would think a power tank or car batter would do just fine. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem.
Jon
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Thanks, Craig. I'm leaning toward Rodger's solution because it probably lasts longer. Best wishes, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 10:02 PM There are several versions out there. I didn't think laptops required much power, but my laptop requires about 20V at about 4 amps. That would be about 7 amps at 12 V. Celestron makes one that is 17 amp hours (they also make a 7, and Orion has a 12), which means it would work for about 2.5 hours. Not as much as I had hoped, but perhaps coupled with the laptop's battery it might be enough. The screen and the disk drive require the most power, so if you don't need those much you'll be better off. You can set your disk drive to turn off after a period of non-usage even when it's plugged in to something, but I guess it needs it to record the images. If you're doing a few long exposures it would be better than a bunch of short exposures I guess. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+cs2560=gmail.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+cs2560=gmail.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Joe Bauman Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:00 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? What's a power tank? That sounds interesting. Thanks, Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote: From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 5:53 PM Some of the generators are pretty quiet these days, but I would think a power tank or car batter would do just fine. On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 2:27 PM, <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote:
Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem.
Jon
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Thanks Jon, I'm too paranoid about idling the Jeep, and about the chance that the laptop power would run low in the middle of some great imaging series. -- Joe --- On Wed, 10/21/09, stormcrow60@xmission.com <stormcrow60@xmission.com> wrote: From: stormcrow60@xmission.com <stormcrow60@xmission.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Private Observing Calendar? To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 2:27 PM Hi Joe, Just a suggestion... have you considered an electrical car adaptor? You would need to run your auto for a length of time to recharge your laptop battery, but if parked far enough away, it would not be a problem. Jon _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
participants (4)
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Craig Smith -
Joe Bauman -
Rodger C. Fry -
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