Hi folks,

I would like to share my experience with using a Windows 8.1 tablet. I believe it has a lot of potential and I am eagerly waiting for dark skies sans clouds to try it again.

I recently purchased a Dell Venue with Windows 8.1 for $250 from Amazon, on which I promptly installed my copy of Skytools 3. I also purchased some Rubylith film and a pen as Windows 8 in normal mode (not using tiles but the traditional menu) is not so "touch" friendly and any normal windows application is certainly not optimised for tablets.

I will soon source a case with built in Bluetooth keyboard and a Bluetooth mouse to go with it but here is how I am faring so far.

I have set up my parameters in ST3 on my laptop (observing locations, telescopes, equipment e.t.c.).

I then backed up this version in my Dropbox and promptly restored it on my Windows tablet. It is easier this way as the tablet is not really optimised to handle a lot of data input using touch e.t.c. As soon as I have the keyboard and mouse, it's another story.

I have found this tablet to be quite fast with "notable" exception that it takes an extra second to render the sky chart for the evening with eyepiece, finderscope and naked eye views. Not really anything to complain about!

Using Rubylith maintains my night vision and I used this last week for a couple of hours. I have found it eminently usable and I am looking forward to more testing. I do carry various charts with me, but if I can avoid printing charts for star hopping, that would be awesome.

Heck, I could always Velcro the sucker on my Dob and keep it mounted for hands free viewing!

Also, with the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, I will be able to take quick observing notes and hopefully start maintaining some records of my observations (a bit lazy in that respect).

Upon returning home, I just backed up the tablet to Dropbox and restored everything (including a couple of test notes) to my desktop.

Would I recommend this? I believe that printed maps will always have their place in the field. I enjoy poring over them with a red light. But the ability to have detailed information and star charts at the tip of my fingers is a tremendous help.

Something to consider and definitely miles ahead of using SkySafari in the field. SkySafari may be more user friendly but in no way can it match a full on astronomical software like ST3.

Food for thought...

Edit: I do of course carry various other maps on the tablet, details about my eyepieces and any other astro stuff of interest. Also, Stellarium runs like a charm and I find it nice for general purpose viewing and could also be extremely helpful for outreach events.