Installation

Python

Binary wheels are available on PyPI for Linux (x86_64, ARM64), macOS (ARM64), and Windows (x86_64):

pip install tetra3rs

Build from source

Building from source requires a Rust toolchain:

git clone https://github.com/ssmichael1/tetra3rs.git
cd tetra3rs
pip install .

Rust

The crate is published on crates.io as tetra3:

cargo add tetra3

To enable centroid extraction from images, add the image feature:

cargo add tetra3 --features image

Star Catalog

tetra3rs generates its pattern database from a merged Gaia DR3 + Hipparcos catalog (~482k stars to G-band magnitude 10). Gaia provides most stars; Hipparcos fills in the brightest stars (G < 4) where Gaia saturates.

Python: The catalog is bundled in the gaia-catalog package, which is installed automatically with tetra3rs. No manual download needed — just call generate_from_gaia() with no arguments.

Rust: Download the pre-built binary catalog (~17 MB):

mkdir -p data
curl -o data/gaia_merged.bin "https://storage.googleapis.com/tetra3rs-testvecs/gaia_merged.bin"

Or generate your own with a custom magnitude limit:

pip install astroquery astropy
python scripts/download_gaia_catalog.py --mag-limit 12.0 --output data/gaia_merged.bin

Note

The catalog is also downloaded automatically when running the Rust integration tests (cargo test --features image).