I finally got around to trying it. After installing the Mate desktop (I can't abide the default desktop) and a few extra apps I'm using 17.5GB. The latest build of AstroLinux is based on a build of Ubuntu so old that it is no longer supported, which is a bit disconcerting. I needed to go through two upgrade steps to be up-to-date. It went easy but it was an hour of watching progress bars creep along.
I haven't played with it for long but so far I'm happy with it. There is a bit of redundancy among the applications. For example there are stand-alone raw-to-fits converters but that functionality is found in several larger packages; same for fits viewers. There are also applications I'll never use, I think mostly for complex research uses. Overall though I think the convenience of having so many useful applications ready out-of-the box is worth the bit of space wasted on excess applications. YMMV
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