diff --git a/DEPENDS.txt b/DEPENDS.txt
index a2c5bb5c..c4cc8679 100644
--- a/DEPENDS.txt
+++ b/DEPENDS.txt
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ functionality is only available with the following installed:
    (or <`PIL http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/>`__)
    The ``Pillow`` library (or equivalently ``PIL``) is used for Input/Output.
 
+* `Astropy <http://www.astropy.org>`__ is required to use the FITS io plug-in.
+
 Testing requirements
 --------------------
 * `Nose <https://nose.readthedocs.org/en/latest/>`__
diff --git a/skimage/io/_plugins/fits_plugin.py b/skimage/io/_plugins/fits_plugin.py
index 52785814..cf714ea6 100644
--- a/skimage/io/_plugins/fits_plugin.py
+++ b/skimage/io/_plugins/fits_plugin.py
@@ -3,11 +3,14 @@ __all__ = ['imread', 'imread_collection']
 import skimage.io as io
 
 try:
-    import pyfits
+    from astropy.io import fits as pyfits
 except ImportError:
-    raise ImportError("PyFITS could not be found. Please refer to\n"
-        "http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/pyfits\n"
-        "for further instructions.")
+    try:
+        import pyfits
+    except ImportError:
+        raise ImportError("PyFITS could not be found. Please refer to\n"
+            "http://www.stsci.edu/resources/software_hardware/pyfits\n"
+            "for further instructions.")
 
 
 def imread(fname, dtype=None):
diff --git a/skimage/io/tests/test_fits.py b/skimage/io/tests/test_fits.py
index d432b611..4fa1b467 100644
--- a/skimage/io/tests/test_fits.py
+++ b/skimage/io/tests/test_fits.py
@@ -9,10 +9,14 @@ from skimage import data_dir
 pyfits_available = True
 
 try:
-    import pyfits
+    from astropy.io import fits as pyfits
 except ImportError:
-    pyfits_available = False
-else:
+    try:
+        import pyfits
+    except ImportError:
+        pyfits_available = False
+
+if pyfits_available:
     import skimage.io._plugins.fits_plugin as fplug