It's possible to trigger the Herbarium Quest before Astrolabe.

Not sure how I pulled this off, but somehow I managed to get Herbarium to trigger before I'd finished Aurellio's quests to unlock Astrolabe. My gear score is 71, highest piece is 96. I have done a few of Aurellio's quests, but hadn't finished them all before Herbarium showed up. After completing the ordeal that was Herbarium in low level gear, I got the card. After completing Aurellio's quests, Astrolabe unlocked as normal.