battery probs...

yep i was out last night between the showers and the batteries are already gone my meade etx 70at ...So the shops are closed and trying to get the telescope to align up with anything between the clouds is near impossible and frustrating.....
So just by accident I had a little led torch I got in a petrol station...its very bright but very small i just took out the eye piece placed pointed the light inside and it sent a huge beam of light into the sky everytime i pointed the beam of light at whatever took my interest i popped in the whatever eyepiece and bang!! it was always centered in the eye piece.. now maybe this is a bad idea Im not sure...Im very new to this just thought it might help people out.... but it sure speed things up and took the frustration out of aligning stuff between showers and clouds...
now back to the battery failure....is it a simple process to get my scope wired up to electricity and does anybody have any info on how to do so??
cheers

With regards to powering the ETX with something other than
the internal batteries BE VERY careful!

The scope's circuits can instantly be fried by attaching
a power adapter with the wrong polarity.

Meade in thier infinate wisdom don't tell you this in the user guide
and I can only imagine thousands of scopes have been toasted in this way.

The power tip going into the 12V port on the scope
MUST be POSITIVE.
If you are using an AC adapter make sure there is a symbol like this
on it : (-)----C----(+)
And if there is a voltage selector on it that it is switched to 12V.

Other than that, just make sure there is enough juice in an
external power supply as the ETX's are very finicky on power levels.

Above all.....Check, check then double check before you plug anything into
the 12v port on the side of the scope!

okay...I probably would fry it..there is no port on the side for any input it takes 6 AA battries at 1.5v and the manual with it shows it taking 9v DC input. Its a a big flaw in the design if its gonna chew up battries that quick
cheers anyhow

Hi,
I got a 9 volt regulated transformer from maplin and battery type clip to go onto where the batteries were located and it worked a treat for me.
DO NOT PUT A 12 VOLT TRANSFORMER ON THE SCOPE.

Rossa, even though it's pretty simple to do, if you are unsure perhaps you should get someone to demonstrate it to you. Even a few pics would help.

In the meantime you could use rechargeable batteries. If you had two sets then you should be OK for a nights viewing. You could even use a fast charger to bring your discharged batteries back up on the spot. I got one from Maplin that charges 4 AA batteries at a time, It works off mains or car cigarette lighter (12V).

Rechargable batts are so much better. Mainly because of the cost effectiveness. I really need to pick up another couple for my skyscout........cuz the ordinary ones dont last too long................a couple of hours at most.