diff --git a/requirements/optional.txt b/requirements/optional.txt
index 510a7d9e8fe..f719e641f64 100644
--- a/requirements/optional.txt
+++ b/requirements/optional.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 imread
 SimpleITK
-astropy
+astropy>=1.2.0
 tifffile
 qtpy
 pyamg