With some help from Jasem the problem has been corrected.
$ sudo apt-get install libnova-0.16-0
[sudo] password for VTVL:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree<br />
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package libnova-0.16-0
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'libnova-0.16-0'
E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'libnova-0.16-0'
$ apt-cache policy kstars-bleeding
kstars-bleeding:
Installed: 5:16.12+201702060804~ubuntu16.04.1
Candidate: 5:16.12+201702060804~ubuntu16.04.1
Version table:
*** 5:16.12+201702060804~ubuntu16.04.1 500
500
ppa.launchpad.net/mutlaqja/ppa/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
What is /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova*
there is no libnova-0.16.so
you could perhaps fake the library...
sudo cp /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova-0.14.so.0.0.0 libnova-0.16.so.0.0.0
sudo rm /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova.s0
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova-0.16.so.0.0.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova.so
ls libnov*
libnova-0.14.so.0 libnova-0.14.so.0.0.0 libnova-0.16.so.0.0.0 libnova.so
ls -l /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 47 Feb 6 14:20 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova.so -> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova-0.16.so.0.0.0
ldd /usr/bin/kstars | grep nova
libnova-0.16.so.0 => not found
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova-0.16.so.0.0.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnova-0.16.so.0
sudo ldconfig
Ah, now KStars starts....version 2.7.3 as I had before the upgrade to 16.04.1
Thanks