Available Downloads

Guidelines for Installing Applications

Unless otherwise specified, the software programs available in this section have been developed to run on IBM-PC and compatible machines under the Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT4/ME/2000 operative system. To install an application you must download the corresponding installation file(s) in any folder of your system. The installation files are RAR SFX files, thus self-extracting, compressed archives. To decompress these archives all you need is executing them; no additional decompression software is required. Each file will run giving you an opportunity to specify an installation folder, which will default to the same folder in which the compressed file is located when you run it.

Some programs require you to manually install an additional module, namely vcl50.bpl. This is the Visual Component Library dynamic module of the Borland/Inprise C++ Builder 5 development environment. For each application needing this module, we make it available for downloading as a RAR SFX file. You must extract (decompress) the file vcl50.bpl and copy it to the system folder. The system folder is usually C:\WINDOWS\system32 under Windows 95/98, or C:\WINNT\system32 under Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. Please note that you only need to copy this file once in order to make it available to any application downloaded from this page. Also note that this module is already installed in your system if you use the Borland C++ Builder 5 development environment of Inprise Corporation.

SGBNR

For Pentium Pro & Higher / Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT4/ME/2000/XP
Authors: Juan Conejero / Maribel Carracedo
Latest version: 1.0.9 Build 58 (beta test version)
Available languages: U.S. English

SGBNR stands for Selective Gaussian Blur Noise Reduction. The advanced implementation of the SGBNR technique makes this program a powerful tool to reduce noise in digital astrophotographic images, including film grain in scanned conventional astrophotos as well as background noise in CCD images. When adequately applied to a variety of astronomical imaging works, we have consistently achieved excellent results with this program.

The SGBNR application can read TIFF, JPEG and BMP images. It writes TIFF files exclusively in its current 1.0 beta version, but FITS support is planned as a priority task in the development of this program and will be implemented in incoming versions.

The program can read and write RGB or grayscale images, with either 8 or 16 bits per channel (24-bit and 48-bit RGB color images, 8-bit and 16-bit monochrome grayscale images). However, SGBNR works internally with 16 bits per channel exclusively, regardless of the original file format and color depth. This has an extra cost in terms of memory usage, but gives a superior level of accuracy, which was one of our main goals when conceiving SGBNR.

As our current main software project, we are updating SGBNR at a constant rate; expect many and important enhancements.

We are very interested in your opinion about SGBNR, and looking forward to your comments and suggestions. Please let us know about your experience with this software and help us improve it.

Installation files

Version 1.0.7 - Complete version including documentation and examples
SGBNR.010007b.en.exe (2269 KB, updated 2002 March 09)

NEW! - Version 1.0.9 Prerelease (build 58) - No documentation
SGBNR.010009b-01.en.exe (292 KB, updated 2002 May 23)

Additional files required

Borland Visual Components Library module
vcl50.bpl.exe (588 KB)

This program supports the TIFF format (TIFF 6.0 specification) via the libtiff library, a superb, high-performance software tool due to Sam Leffler of Silicon Graphics. The file below, namely libtiff_3_5_7.dll (once decompressed), must be placed in the same folder as SGBNR.exe. This DLL file is our adapted libtiff version 3.5.7 to the Borland C++ Builder environment.

LIBTIFF Library module
libtiff_3_5_7.dll.exe (98 KB, updated 2002 february 15)

Once decompressed, to run this program simply launch the executable file, namely SGBNR.exe. Please select the Help|About command for full credits and Help|Index for complete documentation.

Please take into account that this software and its accompanying documentation are still at a beta version development stage.

LX200 Control Panel Version 1.0

For PC / Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT4/ME/2000
Author: Juan Conejero (AKA skycad)
Latest version: 1.0 Build 96
Available languages: U.S. English

This is a program to remotely controlling Meade LX200 instruments via the RS232 interface from your desktop or laptop computer, with complete telescope real-time control functions. It fully emulates the LX200 handpad, including movement, coordinates, time and synchronization functions, as well as a direct interface to the LX200 object library. A fine tool for CCD observation and real-time video image acquisition.

Included are the executable file, complete documentation with detailed instructions to easily build the RS232 communications cable, and fully reusable C++ source code. Users with programming skills can take this program's source code as a starting point to easily build their own telescope control software.

Installation files:

LX200ControlPanel.0100.en.exe (288 KB)

Additional files required:

vcl50.bpl.exe (588 KB)

Once decompressed, to run this program simply launch the executable file, namely LX200ControlPanel.exe. The documentation and source code are located under the help and source subfolders, respectively.