eXcalibrator

Current Version is 3.0, May 8, 2012

eXcalibrator calibrates image color by using the NOMAD1 or SDSS database to identify stars in your image that should be white.  The program then computes the correction factors to apply to the green and blue channels.

To install, just download and unzip eXcalibrator_3_0.zip (6.15 MB) into your desired folder and create a shortcut for eXcalibrator.exe.

If you have any problems or suggestions please don't hesitate to email me. There is an email link under the Help menu.

eXcalibrator Tips & Tricks.

Revision History

3.0... May 8, 2012 New Feature... A Linear Regression routine uses nearly any color SDSS-DR7 or DR8 star.  In addition to being more accurate, the routine GREATLY increases the number of useful stars. This especially benefits those with a small FOV.  Thanks goes to Bruce Waddington for his work on the LR routine.

Improvement... In Aladin, the Excel format is now used for copying data to the clipboard.

Improvement... A new version of SExtractor is 2 1/2 times faster.

New Feature... A new Aladin filter is included to capture all stars to magnitude 20.

2.06... Jan. 22, 2012 New Feature... A message display system is added. This allows the broadcast of emergency information to the user when eXcalibrator executes. The message will display at program startup until the noted problem is repaired.

2.05... July 27, 2011 Bug Fix... eXcalibrator was not correctly checking for the absence of the FITS keywords CROTA1 and CROTA2.

2.0... July 18, 2011 New Feature... SExtractor is add as an additional star analysis method.

New Feature... Added the Spanish translation of the documentation.  Thanks goes to Felipe Largo.

Improvement... eXcalibrator now allows 16-bit signed and 32-bit integer FITS files.

Improvement... To avoid confusion, the plate-solved file is only loaded into the WCS File text box. In the case of using SExtractor, the program renames the text box to "Sum File."

Bug fix... View Header correctly shows the header for the plate-solved file.

Bug fix... The FITS keywords, BZERO and BSCALE, are no longer used for 32-bit files.  This allows reading files created by MaximDL.

1.0.4.2... April 4, 2011 Fix for an Aladin bug... When running under the 64-bit version of Windows 7, Aladin drops the "VizieR" column in the NOMAD1 and SDSS-DR7 data.

1.0.4.1... Feb. 5, 2011 Bug Fix... The parse SDSS & NOMAD1 Data Routines are modified, again,  to read the recent changes in the Aladin format.

1.0.4.0... Oct. 14, 2010 Bug Fix... The parse SDSS Data Routine is modified to read the recent changes in the Aladin format.

Improvement... The program can now use any registered image to obtain the WCS data.

Improvement... The NOMAD1 adjustment factors are now automatically applied.

Special Note... See Appendix A for documentation on the above changes.  This is currently only available in the English version.  Check back in a couple of weeks for complete documentation rewrites.

1.0.3.0... Mar 22, 2010 Bug Fix... When using the "Use Local Background" photometry method, the program sometimes found no useable stars, resulting in a later floating-point error. An error message was added, suggesting input changes to find more stars.

Improvement... Added more error messages.

1.0.2.0... Mar 13, 2010 No software changes... just added the French translation for the documentation. Thanks goes to Thierry SERIEYS for this work.

1.0.2.0... Feb 10, 2010 No software changes... just an organizational rewrite of the documentation into clearer setup and workflow sections. An example workflow was added, showing how to use eXcalibrator's results in an image processing program. Thanks goes to Neil Fleming for his work on this rewrite.

1.0.2.0... Sept. 1, 2009 On startup, eXcalibrator now informs the user if a program update is available.  After downloading, it will be necessary to exit the program to unzip and install the new executable. It may be necessary to go to the web page to download a new documentation (PDF) file.

Bug Fix... To avoid divide by zero errors, a Minimum Star Value has been added. The brightness for red, green and blue must all be above this value to include the star in the calibration. The minimum value is initially set to 50... anything less than 50 to 100 is probably too dim to be useful.

1.0.1.0... Aug 29, 2009 With 16-bit images, some programs place the value, 32767, in the FITS header for the keyword BZERO.  eXcalibrator now looks for 32767 and 32768.