Dec 07: 2.7 - FITS I/O and astrometry layers updated (same as SWarp and SCAMP) - Support for model-fitting Jul 06: 2.5 - Support for VOTable catalogs and metadata in output. Aug 05: 2.4 - New windowed measurement parameters - Better FITS compliancy of output files May 03: 2.3 - Autoconf'ed package. - Dumpable internal config file - Large File Support - Support for MEF files Feb 01: 2.2 - Mostly bug fixes and experimental stuff added May 99: 2.1 - Mostly bug fixes and experimental stuff added April 98: 2.0 - New documentation January 97 - March 98:1.2 - Rewriting of an important part of the software, in order to prepare the future... Further optimization of many functions: V1.2 is 30 to 500% faster than V1.0. - (natural) bicubic spline interpolation added to the background-map processing. - Possibility to use another FITS frame for detecting objects, allowing pixel-to-pixel colour measurements. - New MAG_AUTO magnitudes, more robust towards contamination by neighbouring sources (MASKing option). - New .sex format. - New CHECKIMAGE_TYPEs: MINIBACKGROUND (produces small background maps), BACKGROUND_RMS (produces noise maps) MINIBACK_RMS (produces small noise maps) IDENTICAL (useful for converting data types) -OBJECTS (background and detections removed). - Multiple CHECKIMAGE output. - New astrometric parameters using the WCS library. - Handling of external flag-maps. - Handling of images with variable S/N and external noise- or weight- maps, with interpolation. - Real-time cross-identification with an ASCII catalog. May 96: 1.1 "DeNIS" version (not distributed officially) - Corrects 2 fatal bugs which sometimes appeared with DEC-Alphas - Incorporates a new extended FITS output format. - Added possibility to measure within multiple apertures. May 95: Passed 1.0a version: -> FIRST OFFICIAL RELEASE!!! <- - Now the NNW filename is correct in FITS catalog headers. - Corrected a convolution bug with large masks at the bottom of the frame. Added a better-than-nothing normalization of zero-sum masks. - Display of the FITS ID limited to 20 characters. - New default.nnw enhanced and with a larger seeing range. - FWHM parameters slightly tuned for undersampled profiles. - The ``sexcopy'' SExTool put in the previous archive wasn't the right one! Replaced. - 2 new SExtools released: sexreduce and sexin. Apr 95: FIRST 1.0 version: - Neural-network based star/galaxy classifier implemented. NNW-file for Moffat-like PSFs in the optical, generated from simulations. - User's manual updated. - FWHM_IMAGE, FWHM_IMAGE and ELONGATION parameters added. - many more typical convolution files included in the archive. - Comments (beginning with a `#') are now allowed within all the configuration files. - 2 SExTools released: sexcat and sexcopy. - Alpha VMS version added (thanks to R. Johnstone). Feb 95: 1.0 beta 5e version: - 2 bugs major corrected: background interpolation when very special convolution masks are used, and (fixed) aperture magnitude (improved to sub-pixel integration). - Possibility to change preference keywords from the command line. Dec 94: 1.0 beta 5 version: - Major update! Too many changes to mention. - Code optimized and much more stable now. - New executables for IBM RS6000 and AMIGA added. - "II" dropped: call me simply "SExtractor" now. Sep 94: 1.0 beta 4 version: - "clean" distribution with source and makefiles for DEC Alpha, HP/UX, and SUN workstations. - SATUR_LEVEL keyword added. - FLAGS parameter now reliable and written in decimal in ASCII cat. - KRON_RADIUS parameter now reliable. - MAG_ISO_ERR and MAG_APER_ERR now give trusty estimates. - BACKGROUND parameter now in "raw" units. - catalog index numbering starts now from 1. - 2 huge fatal bugs corrected in deblending and background estimation procedures. Jun 94: 1.0 beta 3 version: many bugs corrected thanks to enthousiastic testers! First public release. May 94: 1.0 beta 2 version: reads now all kinds of FITS data. C code completely rewritten in ANSI; image bitmaps are now stored in floating-point. Now controlled through configuration files. User's manual written. Feb 94: 1.0 beta 1 version of "Sextractor II", still limited to 16 bits FITS frames, but pipelined processing allows now frames with size up to 65534x65534 to be processable on most machines. Mar 93: final version of "Sextractor I": limited to 16 bits 2048x2048 max. FITS frames, specifically oriented toward Schmidt plate data processing. Has reduced more than 1.2e10 pixels within 10 months...