> I recently bought a used LX 200.I did not receive a dc adapter with the
> purchase.My scope requires 18 volts dc. The meade #1812 costs 100.00$. I
> have a marine battery sitting around and was thinking of buying a 300 or 400
> watt inverter hooking it up to the marine battery. And plugging in my scope
> to the inverter since I already have a A.C. adapter with the scope. Any
> suggestions on this from any one if this will work? If it will draw the
> battery down fairly quick? I plan on getting some software down the road
> probably the sky by bis. I also don`t have a D.C. adapter for the lap top so
> I thought the inverter would work for this to. The battery is pretty large I
> use it for a trolling motor I think it it has 700 crank amps. don`t remember
> and the inverter costs 50.00$. Would welcome any comments or suggestions. My

First of all, "crank amps" is irrelevant. That's a measure of the maximum
short term output current which is important for starter motors but not
here; your LX200 plus a laptop, dewheaters and CCD cameras is unlikely go
draw as much as 1/100th of that much current.

What is important is the amp-hour rating of the battery. That (given that
it's 12v) is a measure of its energy storage capacity. And that's what
determines how long it will run your setup. A "big" marine battery is
usually 100 amp-hours or more. That is enough to run an LX200 for weeks and
a full imaging setup for several days.

Using an inverter instead of the 1812 is fine. It's a little less efficient
but if you have a "big" battery you don't care. And it does make it
convenient to run other AC devices. I've run this way many times with no
problems. (And I've had lots of problems with the 1812, all of which were
ultimately my fault but ...)

If you do get an inverter get one that puts out a "pure sine wave" output.
The LX200 will probably work fine with a "modified square wave" but a laptop
or a CCD camera may not.

--
Emerald Hills, CA USA http://nineplanets.org/

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