If you're determined to have a LED current ~ 20mA, here's a front end for the timer which will give you that, with an input of anything from 6V to 50V. At 36V the whole front end dissipates only ~ 1.2W even when the input is indefinite.
In the simulation, V2 provides a burst of high frequency 250V pulses to represent noise spikes. The graphs respectively show Q1 collector current (= LED current) as a function of input voltage and in the presence of the noise spikes.
The varistor action is not simulated here but in practice would suppress spikes above 65V. Ignore the connections shown for the opto-transistor (which are there only to keep the simulator happy). I've attached the simulator asc file, if anyone wants to play.