Astrometry.net is easy to use on Linux and Windows.Windows uses Windows Subsytem for Linux for Astrometry.net.
Install
Astrometry.net If you have astronomical imaging of the sky with celestial coordinates you do not know—or do not trust—then Astrometry.net is for you. Input an image and we'll give you back astrometric calibration meta-data, plus lists of known objects falling inside the field of view.

After install, if you need the star index files, use:downloadIndex.py
Linux / Windows Subsystem for Linux
Astrometry Meaning
- Ask the astrometry help desk. USNO Master Clock Time Wed, 14 Apr 2021 15:04:09 UTC. The Sky This Week The Sky This Week, 2021 April 13 - 20.
- Astrometry is the process of determining positions of objects in your field. Modern CCD images and analysis software are able to produce positions accurate to better than one arcsecond when suitable catalogs of comparison objects are used.
Download/install the pre-compiled binary code
Install the star map data necessary to solve images.
MacOS

Using Homebrew:
Usage
The major steps in achieving a useful WCS starfield polynomial fit are:
source extraction (identifying star position in image frame)
quad asterism hashing, including tolerance for star position wiggling due to noise.
Match hash to star catalog, at least 3 choices are available:
- USNO-B
- 2MASS (longwave infrared)
Bayesian decision process, find extremely high probability solution or reject.
We have written a separatearticle on Astrometry.new tips and techniques
Astrometry Definition
Notes
[Optional] compile
This is normally not necessary, unless you want to customize/optimize.
Prereqs:

Astrometry Method
Install: If you have Anaconda/Miniconda Python as your default, Astrometry.net will use them (or whatever your default Python is).Back to at least Astrometry.net 0.70, Astrometry.net is Python 3 compatible.
Add to ~/.bashrc
do not use ~
or you’ll get error
cannot find executable astrometry-engine
Astrometry
Uncomment inparallel
in ~/astrometry.net/etc/astrometry.cfg
(or /etc/astrometry.cfg
)
Copy the star index files withdownloadIndex.py
If it can’t find the index file, be sure ~/astrometry.net/etc/astrometry.cfg
contains:
~
or $HOME
will NOT work!
Related:
Program giving azimuth/elevation for each pixel of your sky image
Astrometry Definition
Alternative: online astrometry.net image scaling
