The Ultimate Astrophotography Power Guide - My Top 3 Battery Setups For Your Astrophotography Rig

[@michaeledmonds3027]

I just found your channel and enjoyed the content. I have subscribed and "liked", and I plan to watch all your videos. Thanks for your efforts.

[@suzannebeers6238]

Great video Rowan... thank you! Can you power the laptop along with the mount, camera, etc? I don't trust my laptop battery all night long

[@AstroWithRoRo]

I have used my Jackery 500 to power my laptop as well as all my gear all night yes.

[@Tw1x5000]

great video so far but one question occured for me: the part where you connect your dslr to the talentcell powerbank: it is a 12V output and dslrs run with 7.4V, so isn't that way too much voltage? i'm a canon-shooter and my dummy-plug has one end with the mentioned 2.1mm socket, so i'd need a 2.1mm plug-to-plug-cable but the voltage is what gives me some headaches.

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

The battery is 12V internally (and you can get 12V from the DC in/out socket, which is the one you use to charge it up), but the yellow socket outputs 9V only. That's probably not enough to fry anything. The stated 7.2V (actually 7.4V) is the _nominal_ voltage of li-ion cells. But fresh off the charger they can be as high as 8.4V, and electronics are always built with at least 10-20% tolerance . But if you want to play it super safe, you can put a DC-DC converter in between to step down the 9V closer to 7.2V. These are also called buck converters, or DC-DC step-down converters. If you're interested in the details: camera batteries are Li-Ion. The chemistry of a cell determines the voltage, and for Li-Ion, that's 3.7V nominal. In order to get the 7.4V the camera expects, two such cells are put in series. This doubles the voltage to 7.4V. When charging Li-Ion (and LiPo, for that matter), the cutoff voltage is 4.2V per cell. For two cells in series, this amounts to 8.4V fresh off the charger. When in use, the 4.2V of a single cell quickly drops to around 3.7V, and the voltage stays around that value for the majority of the runtime, before dropping off again. Once the voltage has fallen to 3.4V, the cell is considered depleted and in need of a charge. The voltage should never drop below 3.0V per cell, as this will damage it: it won't hold as much charge as before, and might even puff up or catch fire. Although that's more of a concern with batteries that draw a lot of current, like e.g. the LiPo packs on a racing drone. For long term storage, it's advised to not fully charge the cell, but terminate the charge at 3.8V. Storing cells fully charged will shorten their lifespan. That's why chargers for RC LiPo packs usually come with a setting for "storage charge". Unfortunately, camera manufacturers prefer to sell you more overpriced batteries, so they omit this feature on their chargers.

[@syeduddinacmacgma9734]

Very good Video. Thanks for this. I will look for the Pegasus now. Thanks.

[@AstroWithRoRo]

No problem 👍

[@davidletz9123]

Hello and thanks for the video. I am just getting into Go-To astrophotography. I have the ASI Air Mini, the ZWO AM3, a guide scope, and dew heater. I have a 288Wh power source ("ECO FLOW River") which has pretty much the outputs as your Jackery. It has an inverter that enables one to connect an AC power device to the battery. I can use the "cigarette lighter" output for one of my devices, and my question is...can I connect the other device (by way of an AC/DC converter) to the AC output?

[@GarnettLeary]

Fantastic setup. Impressed

[@BrewNomads]

Could you get through one evening session with a smaller Jackery than the 500?

[@AstroWithRoRo]

If I’m using a low powered device like a nuc or ASIAIR then I use about 40-60% of the 500 during the night depending on how hard the dew heaters are running.

[@EvenTheDogAgrees]

One error in the video: you state that the Talentcell 8300 has 4x the capacity of your camera battery. This is incorrect. The Talentcell has 8300mAh _at 12V,_ not at the 7V your Nikon battery provides. If your Nikon battery has 2000mAh, it would have a capacity of 7V * 2Ah = 14Wh, whereas your Talentcell has 12V * 8.3Ah = 99.6Ah. It has slightly over 7x the capacity of your Nikon battery.

[@TeodorAngelov]

Nice video! Do you plug the dslr dummy battery to the 12v port? Camera batteries are supposed to be around 9v

[@richardmadley7455]

Hi ,I had problems with my sky watcher power tank ,its in the bin now, my question is will the talent cell be okay to plug into the asi air without problems thank you richard.

[@PauloSilva-wx8tw]

i have an equatorial telescope eq5 refector with goto can i put 12v for 10a is there any problem?

[@spdecoy]

good stuff

[@AstroWithRoRo]

Thanks Gordon!

[@LiveSteamMad]

Where did you get that Lynx Astro cable with the 2.1mm connector on the end, suitable for EQ6-R mount ? I cannot find it anywhere online?

[@AstroWithRoRo]

First light optics is where I bought it from.

[@B4ndwidthBandito]

It's a good vid.... but any chance of a product list to go along with it? I realise you're maybe trying to avoid direct advertising of the items, but a list with model details would be very helpful in my opinion, especially that AC-DC power convertor.

[@AstroWithRoRo]

Done! Added some of the major items in the video description.

[@B4ndwidthBandito]

@@AstroWithRoRo Thanks very much, I appreciate your time in adding this information.

[@alanryder7419]

Good information!

[@sorrycharlie1736]

Hey mate, great vid. Just have two questions, the link to the talentcell 8300 is broken and it seems that it’s no longer available, at least here in Aus. Would you have a recommendation for an alternative? Also, does it matter that it’s 12v going to the cameras battery? I’ve ready that SLR’s require 8v? Cheers for the great content.

[@mikem5933]

Hi RoRo, Have you had any issues with the mount making odd noises while slewing or any tracking issues? I’ve read several places these problems happen due to low amperage to the mount via the power box. They suggest a separate power supply to the mount. That said, I loved the video and in fact I have on order the exact same Pegasus power box & Jakery battery to power almost your exact set up, EQ6-R Pro, 2 dew heaters, ZWO camera but an AsiAir Pro rather than a laptop.

[@AstroWithRoRo]

I have encountered this issue before. It used to happen when my old deep cycle lead acid battery would lose too much power. The mount really need to keep the power within a small margin to work properly, if the voltage drops too much a nasty grinding sound will occur and the mount will stop working (until the battery is charged back up again). The Jackery has a voltage regulator, and I have run it down to 1% before (though I wouldn't recommend it for battery longevity) without having any mount issues.

[@qwertyu2387]

@@AstroWithRoRo low voltage and insufficient current actually is very harmful for your mount motherboard. Few years back I had HEQ5 and Skywatcher dedicated power supply from Skywatcher. I didn't realise that voltage has dropped to about 10volt and when tried to jump from one object to another suddenly this weird noise occurred. I have managed to park mount and switch it off. Subsequently tried to get it going again but at this point mount was dead. Luckily, mount was still under warranty and motherboard was replaced free of charge. Sold bloody power tank immediately and bought 85Ah leisure battery. After watching countless videos how to build power supply I have decided to go ahead with my little DiY project. Today I have power supply with 4 outputs, 1 charging socket, 1 USB 2.1A charging output and voltage display. Running perfect !!!

[@PauloSilva-wx8tw]

12v por10a?

[@fmrc69]

The Talentcell battery isn't regulated so its starting output voltage is 12.6v while battery is full and will gradually decrease to 9.0v during discharge, which is definitely not ideal for mounts, astrocams, etc. I'd much prefer a regulated output that constantly outputs at least 11.5V no matter how much charge is left.

[@MoonHeadJohn]

Can you recommend an alternative? Looking to buy one in the near future for a lens heater and possibly powering my star tracker.

[@clearskiesastro1028]

@@MoonHeadJohn I got the Bluetti AC50s

[@MoonHeadJohn]

@@clearskiesastro1028 Bit over budget and out of scope for me for now but thanks for the suggestion.

[@dallas69]

Ryobi one+ 18v 120-Watt Push Start Power Source with 12-Volt Outlet RYi12VBG Red USB LED Mini Light $2.09 Ya I was thinking about buying T box or C power but those all have boxed in battery power sources are not variable Ah power. As soon as I found the above and a Red usb LED for $50 there is no going back.

[@blueastrophotography6131]

Very useful video! Btw do you also charge your laptop using your Jackery battery when you are not at home? If not what do you do for that?

[@AstroWithRoRo]

at the moment I use the Jackery and the laptop AC charger. It chews through quite a bit more battery power, though. I recently ordered a 130W USBC power bank. I will let you know how it goes once it arrives :)

[@waynerichardson1706]

The cigarette lighter connector is not my favorite. Can ruin your day (night) when it does'nt have the contact, you thought it had. A locking connector is peace of mind and less resistance at higher current flows.

[@kowalskik.1333]

Didnt you forget something? Where to connect a Notebook?