Building and Installing Astrometry.net

**Prologue**: The guildline herein is based on Ubuntu 20.04 in the environment of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) **Acknowledgement**: Many thanks to my mentor (Chia-Yu) in Liscotech for helping me to build the environment for Astrometry.net. ## Enable the WSL Environment To be completed... ## Install Ubuntu 20.04 in WSL and Build a Anaconda Environment for Astrometry.net Install Ubuntu with the distribution of 20.04. ``` wsl --install -d Ubuntu-20.04 ``` Update apt with the adminstrator privilege ``` sudo apt update ``` Download Anaconda ``` sudo curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2019.10-Linux-x86_64.sh ``` Install Anaconda ``` sudo bash Anaconda3-2019.10-Linux-x86_64.sh ``` Type yes to accept the policy from Anaconda. Specify the installation location (it is recommended to install in "/home/anaconda3") ``` /home/anaconda3 ``` After the installation of Anaconda, it is recommended to set the environmental variable to call the command "conda" everywhere. To achive this, we open the file ~/.bashrc with vim, ``` vim ~/.bashrc ``` , add the following line ``` export PATH="/home/anaconda3/bin":$PATH ``` and reactivate the file ``` source ~/.bashrc ``` To activate the base environment of Anaconda in the first time, use ``` source activate ``` ## Download the Source-Code Package of Astrometry.net Download the package ``` wget https://astrometry.net/downloads/astrometry.net-latest.tar.gz ``` Unzip the file ``` tar -xvzf astrometry.net0lastest.tar.gz ``` Change the directory to astrometry.net-* ``` cd astrometry.net-* ``` ## Build a conda environment for Astrometry.net Create a new environment named "StarTracker" with a specified Python 3.7 ``` conda create -n StarTracker python=3.7 ``` (Note: it has been reported that restarting a terminal is required if there occurs problems.) Enter the environment ``` conda activate StarTracker ``` Install the required packages ``` sudo apt install build-essential curl git file pkg-config swig libcairo2-dev sudo apt install libnetpbm10-dev netpbm libpng-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev sudo apt install libbz2-dev libcfitsio-dev wcslib-dev sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-distutils python3-dev sudo apt install python3-numpy python3-scipy python3-pil ``` ## Compile the Astrometry.net Instruction can be found in http://astrometry.net/doc/build.html#build ``` sudo make sudo make extra sudo make install ``` To call the command “conda” everywhere, we add the path ``` vim ./~bashrc export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/astrometry/bin" source ./~bashrc ``` Check the path of "solve-field" ``` which solve-field ``` The path should be "/usr/local/astrometry/bin/solve-field" if you follow the above steps. Create a file at "/usr/local/astrometry/data" to store .fits files ``` make install-indexes ``` Add path to locate the .fits files ``` vim etc/astrometry.cfg (in line -> add_path) /usr/local/astrometry/data ``` ## Start a Calculation Further instruction can be found in http://astrometry.net/doc/readme.html#installing Download the test image https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TOuuM9bdS0J4NnqjdLugcmFpeEWMiKjs/view?usp=sharing and the index file (.fits) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E1fdLi1cDP3-XTjZnNrc4Rep54ogZmaN/view?usp=sharing Put the above two files to corresponding paths index-4216.fits -> /usr/local/astrometry/data IMG_9560.png -> /home/"user name"/astrometry.net-*/demo (or where you want) These operation can be achieved in Windows by typing the path at the file explorer ``` \\wsl$ ``` Try a calculation ``` solve-field demo/IMG_9560.png ``` If the calculation is successful, you can see the following logs on the terminal ``` Reading input file 1 of 1: "demo/IMG_9560.png"... Read file stdin: 828 x 1250 pixels x 1 color(s); maxval 255 Using 8-bit output Extracting sources... simplexy: found 17 sources. Solving... Reading field "demo/IMG_9560.axy"... log-odds ratio 28.4009 (2.15946e+12), 9 match, 0 conflict, 5 distractors, 104 index. RA,Dec = (13.4365,-11.8528), pixel scale 95.3107 arcsec/pix. Hit/miss: Hit/miss: +++++++---+--+(best)+++ Field 1: solved with index index-4216.fits. Field 1 solved: writing to file demo/IMG_9560.solved to indicate this. Field: demo/IMG_9560.png Field center: (RA,Dec) = (13.341913, -11.808647) deg. Field center: (RA H:M:S, Dec D:M:S) = (00:53:22.059, -11:48:31.130). Field size: 21.435 x 31.9883 degrees Field rotation angle: up is -111.122 degrees E of N Field parity: neg Creating new FITS file "demo/IMG_9560.new"... Creating index object overlay plot... Creating annotation plot... Your field contains: Part of the constellation Cetus (Cet) The star Diphda / Deneb Kaitos (β Cet / 16 Cet) The star Baten Kaitos (ζ Cet / 55 Cet) The star Dheneb / Deneb Algenubi (η Cet / 31 Cet) The star Deneb Kaitos Shemali / Schemali / Deneb Kaitos (ι Cet / 8 Cet) The star Al Naymat I (θ Cet / 45 Cet) The star Al Naymat II (τ Cet / 52 Cet) The star Alnitham I (φ1 Cet / 17 Cet) The star Alnitham II (φ2 Cet / 19 Cet) The star Alnitham III (φ3 Cet / 22 Cet) The star Alnitham IV (φ4 Cet / 23 Cet) The star χ Cet / 53 Cet The star 1 Cet The star 2 Cet The star 3 Cet The star 6 Cet The star 7 Cet The star 9 Cet The star 12 Cet The star 13 Cet The star 18 Cet The star 20 Cet The star 21 Cet The star 25 Cet The star 27 Cet The star 28 Cet The star 30 Cet The star 32 Cet The star 34 Cet The star 37 Cet The star 38 Cet The star 39 Cet The star 42 Cet The star 43 Cet The star 44 Cet The star 46 Cet The star 47 Cet The star 49 Cet The star 50 Cet The star 30 Psc The star 33 Psc ```