How To Install astap on Ubuntu

Posted on April 1, 2023  (Last modified on May 20, 2023 )

3 minutes  • 553 words

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install astap on Ubuntu.

What is astap

astap is:

ASTAP is a free stacking and astrometric solver (plate solver) program for deep sky images. In works with astronomical images in the FITS format, but can import RAW DSLR images or XISF, PGM, PPM, TIF, PNG and JPG images. It has a powerful FITS viewer and the native astrometric solver can be used by CCDCiel, NINA, APT or SGP imaging programs to synchronise the mount based on an image taken.

Main features:

• Native astrometric solver, command line compatible with PlateSolve2.
• Stacking astronomical images including dark frame and flat field correction.
  • Filtering of deep sky images based on HFD value and average value.
  • Alignment using an internal star match routine, internal astrometric solver.
  • Mosaic building covering large areas using the astrometric linear solution WCS or WCS+SIP polynomial.
  • Background equalizing.
• FITS viewer with swipe functionality, deep sky and star annotation, photometry and CCD inspector.
  • FITS thumbnail viewer.
  • Results can be saved to 16 bit or float (-32) FITS files.
  • Export to JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PFM, PPM, PGM files.
  • FITS header edit.
  • FITS crop function.
  • Automatic photometry calibration against Gaia database, Johnson -V or Gaia Bm
  • CCD inspector
  • Deepsky and Hyperleda annotation
  • Solar object annotation using MPC ephemerides
  • Read/writes FITS binary and reads ASCII tables.
• Some pixel math functions and digital development process
• Can display images and tables from a multi-extension FITS.
• Blink routine.

There are three methods to install astap on Ubuntu. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install astap Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install astap using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install astap

Install astap Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install astap using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install astap

Install astap Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install astap using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install astap

How To Uninstall astap on Ubuntu

To uninstall only the astap package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove astap

Uninstall astap And Its Dependencies

To uninstall astap and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove astap

Remove astap Configurations and Data

To remove astap configuration and data from Ubuntu we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge astap

Remove astap configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove astap configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge astap

Dependencies

astap have the following dependencies:

• libatk1.0-0
• libc6
• libcairo2
• libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0
• libglib2.0-0
• libgtk2.0-0
• libpango-1.0-0
• libx11-6
• libraw-bin

References

• astap website

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install astap package on Ubuntu using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.