Install ARGOS¶

Three things have to be in place before your first night: ARGOS itself, the ASTAP plate solver with a star database, and the link between them. Budget twenty minutes indoors — none of it should be attempted in the dark.

What you do not need

You do not need Python. The macOS and Debian packages are self-contained. The uv instructions in Contributing to ARGOS are for people modifying the source, not for observers.

1. Install ARGOS¶

Downloads are on the releases page.

macOS

Argos-0.4.1-macOS-arm64.dmg — 67 MB, Apple silicon.

Open the .dmg, drag ARGOS to Applications.

Debian

argos_0.4.1_amd64.deb — 82 MB, x86-64.

sudo apt install ./argos_0.4.1_amd64.deb

A technical preview: never field-validated on Linux.

Source

Tag v0.4.1.

uv sync --extra dev
uv run python main.py

macOS: the build is unsigned

Double-clicking will fail. Control-click ARGOS → Open, then confirm.

If macOS says the app is damaged, that is the quarantine attribute, not a corrupt download:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Argos.app

2. Install ASTAP — and a star database¶

ARGOS does not bundle a plate solver, and without one it cannot identify a field, so it cannot do photometry. ASTAP is free.

Two separate downloads, and you need both:

the ASTAP program for your platform;
one star database.

Which database? D50.

ASTAP publishes several, distinguished by star density rather than magnitude: D05, D20, D50, D80 (general purpose), V50 (with Johnson-V magnitudes), G05 (galaxies) and W08 (very wide field).

Every Seestar profile has a field between 0.7° and 4.0°, which lands in the range ASTAP solves from the D-series. D50 is the right default. Take D20 if disk space is tight; D80 is larger (~1.25 GB) with no disadvantage but its size. Do not take G05 or W08 — they are for fields far outside this range.

3. Point ARGOS at ASTAP¶

Settings → Astrometry. Browse to the ASTAP executable, and to the database folder if it was not auto-detected. The status line has to confirm both: ARGOS cannot solve from the executable alone, and the failure mode if you get this wrong is a solve that simply never succeeds, at one in the morning.

macOS: point at the binary, not the bundle

ASTAP arrives as ASTAP.app, which is a folder. The file browser will happily let you select the bundle, and it will not work. The executable is inside:

/Applications/ASTAP.app/Contents/MacOS/astap

In the file dialog, press ⌘⇧G and paste that path.

4. Check it before you rely on it¶

Do this indoors, in daylight, with no telescope connected:

ARGOS launches
Settings → Astrometry confirms both the executable and the database
Settings → Observatory has your name, your AAVSO observer code and your site
Settings → Equipment · camera is set to the telescope you actually own
Settings → Files · application points at a sessions folder with room for a night — plan on a few GB
File → Open FITS image… on any old frame, then Field → Identify field, resolves. This is the real test of steps 2 and 3.

If you have no FITS to hand, the first frame of your first session will do — but then you are testing your solver setup in the field, which is the thing this page exists to avoid.