Summary
The AWOW AK41 has some advantages as a tool for astronomy. The fact that it’s a small form PC means that it’s practical to move the computer to my garden shed and control a telescope, something I wouldn’t want to do with a full tower PC, as that’s often too heavy and bulky to move on a regular basis. But a laptop is definitely preferable (if you have one).
I was satisfied with the performance of Celestia and Stellarium. Frames per second were fairly low but both programs are more than usable. And they offload a lot of the work from the CPU to the GPU, unlike Skychart and KStars.
While the programs limit usage to 1 core, this means there’s plenty of CPU cycles to multi-task.
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Celestia
Page 2 – Stellarium
Page 3 – Skychart
Page 4 – KStars
Page 5 – AstroImageJ
Page 6 – Summary
How much does the AK41 cost?
The Mini PC retails at $239.99 / £239.99
Hi Luke,
I have bought the AWOW AK41 but I cannot find the button to start the BIOS.
Do you know which button is the right one?
In addtion I’m looking for the handbook. Do you have an idea where I can get it?
Press the Delete or Escape key to access the BIOS.
There is the very brief quick guide, there is no ‘handbook’.