StackImages

StackImages is a Python script and graphical interface for astrophotography image integration.

This README includes installation and usage instructions adapted from the project's documentation: https://orfe.io/stackimg.html

macOS installation (copy-paste into Terminal)

1. Download and extract StackImages:

curl -L https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tmp/PyWin.tar -o $HOME/Downloads/StackImages.tar && \
if [[ ! -d $HOME/Downloads/StackImages ]]; then mkdir -p $HOME/Downloads/StackImages ; fi && \
tar -xvf $HOME/Downloads/StackImages.tar --directory=$HOME/Downloads/StackImages --strip-components=1 PyWin

2. Download Miniconda:

curl https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-`arch`.sh -o ~/Downloads/miniconda.sh

3. Install Miniconda:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/miniconda.sh ; ~/Downloads/miniconda.sh -bu

4. Initialize conda (then restart Terminal):

~/miniconda3/bin/conda init bash ; ~/miniconda3/bin/conda init zsh

5. Accept the conda Terms of Service:

conda tos accept

6. Configure conda channels (prioritize astropy/apple/conda-forge):

conda config --add channels conda-forge --add channels apple --add channels astropy

7. Create the conda environment BobsAstro:

conda create -n BobsAstro astropy astroquery scipy==1.11.2 matplotlib wxpython opencv pyqt qt=5 imageio -y

Usage (macOS)

Activate the environment and run the helper to download FITS files:

conda activate BobsAstro
pythonw $HOME/Downloads/StackImages/GetFit.py

Run the main GUI:

conda activate BobsAstro
pythonw $HOME/Downloads/StackImages/StackImages.py

Update the software

To update StackImages to the latest versions posted on the server, run:

curl -L https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tmp/PyWin.tar -o $HOME/Downloads/StackImages.tar && \
tar -xvkf $HOME/Downloads/StackImages.tar --unlink -C $HOME/Downloads/StackImages --strip-components=1 --exclude='._*'

Windows installation (copy-paste into Anaconda Prompt)

1. Download and extract StackImages:

curl --noproxy "*" https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tmp/PyWin.tar -o %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\StackImages.tar ; \
IF NOT EXIST %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\StackImages mkdir %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\StackImages ; \
 tar -xvf %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\StackImages.tar --directory=%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\StackImages --strip-components=1 PyWin

2. Configure conda channels:

conda config --add channels conda-forge --add channels astropy

3. Accept the Terms of Service:

conda tos accept

4. Create the BobsAstro environment:

conda create -n BobsAstro astropy astroquery scipy==1.11.2 matplotlib wxpython pyqt qt=5 imageio -y

5. Activate the environment and install OpenCV via pip (Windows workaround):

conda activate BobsAstro
pip install opencv-contrib-python

Usage (Windows)

Run GetFit and StackImages from the activated environment:

conda activate BobsAstro
pythonw %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\StackImages\GetFit.py
pythonw %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\StackImages\StackImages.py

Notes

• The distributed release artifact produced by CI is named PyWin.tar to match legacy expectations.
• This README text is adapted from https://orfe.io/stackimg.html. For the latest instructions or additional details, see that page.