My goal is to have an LED flash (rather than stay on all of the time) in order to conserve battery life. So, I learned how to modify a 555 timer circuit so that the LED flashes for about 0.1Hz and remains off for ~10 seconds.
The circuit diagram is like this:
Source: http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/waveforms/tim58.gif?81223b
Are there other components in a 555 time circuit (resistors, capacitors, 555 itself, etc) that are drawing energy and will significantly affect my battery life, even though I have greatly reduced the duty cycle?