What it does
ASTAP is an astrometric stacking program with a plate solver, FITS viewer and photometry-related tools.
Inspect the FITS source or use plate solving for sky coordinates before stacking. Choose the appropriate star database and field height; small star-poor fields need particular attention. The format table separates 8-bit, 16-bit and floating-point input/output support. Solver -update writes the solution into the input FITS/TIFF header, so select that separately from saving a processed copy. Stacking includes dark/flat correction and alignment. ASTAP is free, but actual camera RAW decoding and platform packages still need checking for the source file.
Strengths
- FITS viewing and plate solving
- Image-stacking workflow
Best for
- Preparing and identifying astronomical images
Sources
- ASTAP, Astrometric Stacking Program (Oct 26, 2026)
- ASTAP format table and solving requirements (Oct 26, 2026)