1XPLANET(1) General Commands Manual XPLANET(1)
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6 xplanet - render an image of a planet into an X window or file
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9 xplanet [options]
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13 Xplanet is similar to Xearth, where an image of the earth is rendered
14 into an X window. All of the major planets and most satellites can be
15 drawn. A number of different map projections are also supported,
16 including azimuthal, Mercator, Mollweide, orthographic, and rectangu‐
17 lar. The latest version can always be found at http://xplanet.source‐
18 forge.net.
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22 Options need only be specified with enough characters to be unambigu‐
23 ous. Valid options to Xplanet are:
24 -arc_file
27 Specify an arc file to be plotted against the background stars.
28 Each line in the file must have the following syntax:
29 dec1 ra1 dec2 ra2
31 where declination is in degrees and right ascension is in hours.
33 This option has no effect if -projection is specified.
34 -arc_spacing spacing
37 When drawing an arc, draw line segments that are spacing degrees
38 apart. The default is 0.1 degrees. Line segments shorter than
39 spacing will not be drawn.
40 -background background_file
43 Use background_file as the background image, with the planet to
44 be superimposed upon it. This option is only meaningful with
45 the -projection option. A color may also be supplied (e.g.
46 -background "navy blue" or -background 0xff00ff).
47 -base_magnitude magnitude
50 A star of the specified magnitude will have a pixel brightness
51 of 1. The default value is 10. Stars will be drawn more
52 brightly if this number is larger.
53 -body body
56 Render an image of the specified planet or satellite. Valid
57 values for body are sun, mercury, venus, earth, moon, mars, pho‐
58 bos, deimos, jupiter, io, europa, ganymede, callisto, saturn,
59 mimas, enceladus, tethys, dione, rhea, titan, hyperion, iapetus,
60 phoebe, uranus, miranda, ariel, umbriel, titania, oberon, nep‐
61 tune, triton, nereid, pluto, charon, random, and major.
62 The field of view can also be centered on a satellite location
64 using "naif" or "norad", along with the satellite id. For exam‐
65 ple, "-body naif-82" will center the field of view on NAIF ID
66 -82, which is the Cassini orbiter. Xplanet must be compiled
67 with SPICE support and the required kernels must be present.
68 See the README in the spice subdirectory for more details.
69 Using "-body norad20580" will center the field of view on NORAD
70 ID 20580, which is the Hubble Space Telescope. The appropriate
71 TLE files must be present in this case. See the README in the
72 satellites subdirectory for more information.
73 Using "path" will center the field of view on the direction of
75 motion of the origin. This direction is relative to the direc‐
76 tion of motion of the body specified by -path_relative_to.
77 Earth is the default body. This option is the same as -target.
79 -center +x+y
82 Place the center of the rendered body at pixel coordinates (x,
83 y). The upper left corner of the screen is at (0,0). Either x
84 or y may be negative. The default value is the center of the
85 screen.
86 -color color
89 Set the color for the label. The default is "red". Any color
90 in the rgb.txt file may be used. Colors may also be specified
91 by RGB hex values; for example -color 0xff and -color blue mean
92 the same thing, as do -color 0xff0000 and -color red.
93 -config config_file
96 Use the configuration file config_file. The format of con‐
97 fig_file is described in README.config. See the description of
98 -searchdir to see where xplanet looks in order to find the con‐
99 figuration file.
100 -date YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS
103 Use the date specified instead of the current local time. The
104 date is assumed to be GMT.
105 -date_format string
108 Specify the format for the date/time label. This format string
109 is passed to strftime(3). The default is "%c %Z", which shows
110 the date, time, and time zone in the locale's appropriate date
111 and time representation.
112 -dynamic_origin file
115 Specify an observer location. The location is relative to the
116 body specified with -origin (by default, this is the Sun). The
117 last line of the file must be of the form
118 YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS range lat lon localtime
120 For example,
122 19951207.120000 10.328 -3.018 97.709 9.595
124 The specified time is ignored and the current time is used. The
126 range is in planetary radii, and lat and lon are in degrees.
127 Localtime (in hours) is optional, but if present, it will be
128 used in place of the longitude. Only the last line of the file
129 is used. This file may be updated between renderings using a
130 script executed with the -prev_command or -post_command options.
131 -ephemeris_file filename
134 Specify a JPL digital ephemeris file (DE200, DE405, or DE406) to
135 use for computing planetary positions. Xplanet uses Bill Gray's
136 code (http://www.projectpluto.com/jpl_eph.htm), which reads both
137 big and little endian binary files. The ephemeris files found
138 at ftp://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/eph/export/unix are big endian
139 files, but you do not need to do any additional byte-swapping to
140 use them. See the description of -searchdir to see where
141 xplanet looks in order to find the star map.
142 -font fontname
145 Set the font for the label. Only TrueType fonts are supported.
146 If the -pango option is used, fontname is taken to be the font
147 family name (e.g. "Arial").
148 -fontsize size
151 Specify the point size. The default is 12.
152 -fork Detach from the controlling terminal. This is useful on MS Win‐
155 dows to run xplanet from a batch file without having to keep a
156 DOS window open. Be careful when using this option; it's easy
157 to have multiple processes running at the same time without
158 knowing it - check the Task Manager. On unix systems this is
159 pretty much the same as running xplanet in the background.
160 -fov Specify the field of view, in degrees. This option and the
163 -radius option are mutually exclusive. This option has no
164 effect if the -projection option is used.
165 -geometry string
168 Specify the image geometry using the standard X window geometry
169 syntax, [<width>{xX}<height>][{+-}<xoffset>{+-}<yoffset>] (e.g.
170 256x256-10+10 puts a window 256x256 pixels in size 10 pixels
171 away from the right side and 10 pixels below the top of the root
172 window). The root window outside of the image will be black.
173 This option may be used with -window or -output.
174 -glare radius
177 Draw a glare around the sun with with a radius of the specified
178 value larger than the sun. The default value is 28.
179 -gmtlabel
182 Same as the -label option, but show GMT instead of local time.
183 -grs_longitude lon
186 The longitude of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS). A typical
187 value is 94 degrees. If this option is specified, longitudes on
188 Jupiter will be calculated in System II coordinates. By
189 default, longitudes are calculated in System III coordinates.
190 When using this option, use an image map for Jupiter where the
191 center of the GRS is at the pixel 0 column, or the left side of
192 the image.
193 -hibernate seconds
196 After the screen has been idle for the specified number of sec‐
197 onds, xplanet will sleep. This option requires xplanet to have
198 been compiled with the X Screensaver extension.
199 -idlewait seconds
202 Don't run Xplanet unless the screen has been idle for the speci‐
203 fied number of seconds. This option requires xplanet to have
204 been compiled with the X Screensaver extension.
205 -interpolate_origin_file
208 This option is only useful in conjunction with -origin_file. It
209 computes the observer position at the current time by interpo‐
210 lating between values specified in the origin file. This is
211 useful if you have spacecraft positions tabulated in an origin
212 file, but want a real time view.
213 -jdate Julian date
216 Use the specified Julian date instead of the current local time.
217 -label Display a label in the upper right corner.
220 -labelpos
223 Specify the location of the label using the standard X window
224 geometry syntax. The default position is "-15+15", or 15 pixels
225 to the left and below the top right corner of the display. This
226 option implies -label.
227 -label_string
230 Specify the text of the first line of the label. By default, it
231 says something like "Looking at Earth". Any instances of %t
232 will be replaced by the target name, and any instances of %o
233 will be replaced by the origin name.
234 -latitude latitude
237 Render the target body as seen from above the specified latitude
238 (in degrees). The default value is 0.
239 -light_time
242 Account for the time it takes for light to travel from the tar‐
243 get body to the observer. The default is to ignore the effects
244 of light time.
245 -log_magstep step
248 Increase the brightness of a star by 10^step for each integer
249 decrease in magnitude. The default value is 0.4. This means
250 that a star of magnitude 2 is 10^0.4 (about 2.5) times brighter
251 than a star of magnitude 3. A larger number makes stars
252 brighter.
253 -longitude longitude
256 Place the observer above the specified longitude (in degrees).
257 Longitude is positive going east, negative going west (for the
258 earth and moon), so for example Los Angeles is at -118 or 242.
259 The default value is 0.
260 -make_cloud_maps
263 If there is an entry in the config file for cloud_map, xplanet
264 will output a day and night image with clouds overlaid and then
265 exit. The images will be created in the directory specified by
266 -tmpdir, or in the current directory if -tmpdir is not used.
267 The names of the output images default to day_clouds.jpg and
268 night_clouds.jpg, but may be changed by the -output option. If
269 "-output filename.extension" is specified, the output images
270 will be named "day_filename.extension" and "night_file‐
271 name.extension". The dimensions of the output images are the
272 same as the day image.
273 -marker_file
276 Specify a file containing user defined marker data to display
277 against the background stars. The format of each line is gener‐
278 ally declination, right ascension, string, as in the example
279 below:
280 -16.7161 6.7525 "Sirius"
282 For additional options which may be specified, see the
284 marker_file entry in README.config. This option has no effect
285 if -projection is specified. This option is not meant for city
286 markers; for that use the marker_file option in the configura‐
287 tion file.
288 -markerbounds filename
291 Write coordinates of the bounding box for each marker to file‐
292 name. This might be useful if you're using xplanet to make
293 imagemaps for web pages. Each line looks like:
294 204,312 277,324 Los Angeles
296 where the coordinates are for the upper left and lower right
298 corners of the box. This file gets rewritten every time xplanet
299 renders its image.
300 -north north_type
303 This option rotates the image so that the top points to
304 north_type. Valid values for north_type are:
305 body: body's north pole
307 galactic: galactic north pole
308 orbit: body's orbital north pole (perpendicular to the orbit plane)
309 path: origin's velocity vector (also see -path_relative_to option)
310 The default value is "body".
312 -num_times num_times
315 Run num_times before exiting. The default is to run indefi‐
316 nitely.
317 -origin body
320 Place the observer at the center of the specified body. Valid
321 values are the same as for -target. In addition, "above",
322 "below", or "system" may be specified. Using "above" or "below"
323 centers the view on the body's primary and the field of view is
324 large enough to show the body's orbit. Using "system" places
325 the observer at the center of a random body in the same system
326 as the target body. Two bodies are in the same system if one of
327 the following is true:
328 1) target and origin have same primary
330 2) target is origin's primary
331 3) origin is target's primary
332 If the body name is preceded by a dash, the observer is placed
334 on the opposite side of the target from the specified body at a
335 distance equal to the distance between the target and body. For
336 example, -target earth -origin sun places the observer at the
337 center of the sun. If -target earth -origin -sun is used, the
338 observer is placed on a line connecting the centers of the earth
339 and sun at a distance of 1 AU farther from the sun than the
340 earth.
341 -origin_file origin_file
344 Specify a list of observer positions in origin_file. The posi‐
345 tions are relative to the body specified with -origin (by
346 default, this is the Sun). Each line should be of the form
347 YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS range lat lon localtime
349 For example,
351 19951207.120000 10.328 -3.018 97.709 9.595
353 Range is in planetary radii, and lat and lon are in degrees.
355 The date is the only required value. If the localtime (in
356 hours) is supplied, it will be used in place of the longitude.
357 For each line in the origin file, the observer is placed at the
358 specified position, relative to the body specified with -origin.
359 This option is useful for showing spacecraft flybys or orbiting
360 around a planet. Any line with a # in the first column is
361 ignored.
362 -output filename
365 Output to a file instead of rendering to a window. The file
366 format is taken from the extension. Currently .gif, .jpg, .ppm,
367 .png, and .tiff images can be created, if xplanet has been com‐
368 piled with the appropriate libraries. The image size defaults
369 to 512 by 512 pixels but this may be changed by the -geometry
370 flag. If used with the -num_times option, each output file will
371 be numbered sequentially.
372 -output_start_index index
375 Start numbering output files at index. The default is 0.
376 -pango Use the Pango (http://www.pango.org) library for rendering
379 internationalized text. Pango uses Unicode for all of its encod‐
380 ing, and will eventually support output in all the worlds major
381 languages. If xplanet has not been compiled with this library
382 this option will be ignored. There appear to be memory leaks in
383 the pango library, so I don't recommend letting xplanet run
384 indefinitely with this option.
385 -path_relative_to body
388 Only used with -north path or -target path. The origin's veloc‐
389 ity vector is calculated relative to the specified body. By
390 default, this is the Sun.
391 -post_command command
394 -prev_command command
396 Run command either before or after each time xplanet renders an
397 image. On MS Windows, you may need to use unix-style paths.
398 For example:
399 xplanet.exe -prev_command ./prev.bat
401 -print_ephemeris
405 Print the heliocentric rectangular equatorial coordinates
406 (J2000) for each body xplanet knows about, and then exit.
407 -projection projection_type
410 The projection type may be one of ancient, azimuthal, bonne,
411 gnomonic, hemisphere, lambert, mercator, mollweide, ortho‐
412 graphic, peters, polyconic, rectangular, or tsc. The default is
413 no projection. Multiple bodies will not be shown if this option
414 is specified, although shadows will still be drawn.
415 -proj_param value
418 Pass additional parameters for some projections. The only pro‐
419 jections that use this option at present are the Bonne,
420 Gnomonic, and Mercator projections. The Bonne projection is
421 conformal at the specified latitude. Higher values lead to a
422 thinner heart shape. The default is 50 degrees. The Gnomonic
423 and Mercator projections use the specified latitude as the
424 boundaries of the projection. The defaults are 45 and 80
425 degrees, respectively. This option may be used more than once
426 for future projections that require additional parameters. Only
427 the first value is used at present.
428 -quality quality
431 This option is only used when creating JPEG images. The quality
432 can range from 0 to 100. The default value is 80.
433 -radius radius
436 Specify the radius of the globe as a percent of the screen
437 height. The default value is 45% of the screen height. When
438 drawing Saturn, the radius value applies to the radius of the
439 outer ring.
440 -random
443 Place the observer above a random latitude and longitude.
444 -range range
447 Render the globe as seen from a distance of range from the
448 planet's center, in units of the planetary radius. The default
449 value is 1000. Note that if you use very close ranges the field
450 of view of the screen can be greater than 180 degrees! If you
451 want an "up close" image use the -radius option.
452 -rotate angle
455 Rotate the globe by angle degrees counterclockwise so that north
456 (as defined by the -north argument) isn't at the top. The
457 default value is 0. My friends in the Southern Hemisphere can
458 use -rotate 180 to make the earth look like it should! For non-
459 orthographic projections, the globe is rotated and then pro‐
460 jected, if that helps you visualize what to expect.
461 -save_desktop_file
464 On Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, xplanet creates an intermedi‐
465 ate image file which is used to set the desktop. This file will
466 be created in the -tmpdir directory. By default, this image is
467 removed after the desktop has been set. Specifying this option
468 will leave the file in place.
469 -searchdir directory
472 Any files used by xplanet should be placed in one of the follow‐
473 ing directories depending on its type: "arcs", "config",
474 "ephemeris", "fonts", "images", "markers", "origin", "satel‐
475 lites", or "stars". By default, xplanet will look for a file in
476 the following order:
477 The current directory
479 searchdir
480 subdirectories of searchdir
481 subdirectories of xplanet (if it exists in the current directory)
482 subdirectories of ${HOME}/.xplanet on X11
483 subdirectories of ${HOME}/Library/Xplanet on Mac OS X
484 subdirectories of DATADIR/xplanet
485 DATADIR is set at compile time and defaults to /usr/local/share.
487 -spice_ephemeris index
490 Use SPICE kernels to compute the position of the named body.
491 The index is the naif ID code (e.g. 599 for Jupiter). The
492 -spice_file option must be used to supply the names of the ker‐
493 nel files. This option may be used more than once for different
494 bodies.
495 -spice_file spice_file
498 Specify a file containing a list of objects to display. A file
499 containing a list of SPICE kernels to read named spice_file.krn
500 must exist along with spice_file. See the README in the "spice"
501 subdirectory for more information.
502 -starfreq frequency
505 Fraction of background pixels that will be colored white. The
506 default value is 0.001. This option is only meaningful with the
507 azimuthal, mollweide, orthographic, and peters projections.
508 -starmap starmap
511 Use starmap to draw the background stars. This file should be a
512 text file where each line has the following format:
513 Declination, Right Ascension, Magnitude
515 where Declination is in decimal degrees and Right Ascension is
517 in decimal hours. For example, the entry for Sirius is
518 -16.7161 6.7525 -1.46
520 See the description of -searchdir to see where xplanet looks in
522 order to find the star map.
523 -target target
526 Same as -body.
527 -tt Use terrestrial time instead of universal time. The two differ
530 slightly due to the non-uniform rotation of the earth. The
531 default is to use universal time.
532 -timewarp
535 As in xearth, scale the apparent rate at which time progresses
536 by factor. The default is 1.
537 -tmpdir tmpdir
540 Specify a directory that xplanet will use to place images cre‐
541 ated using -make_cloud_maps. On Microsoft Windows, xplanet will
542 write a bitmap file called xplanet.bmp to the specified direc‐
543 tory. The default is the result of the GetWindowsDirectory call
544 (C:WINDOWS on Win95). On Mac OS X, xplanet will create an
545 intermediate PNG file in order to set the background. The
546 default value is /tmp. On Windows and Mac OS X, the intermedi‐
547 ate file will be removed unless the -save_desktop_file option is
548 specified.
549 -transparency
552 Update the background pixmap for transparent Eterms and aterms.
553 This option only works under X11.
554 -transpng filename
557 Same as the -output option, except set the background to be
558 transparent when writing a PNG file.
559 -utclabel
562 Same as -gmtlabel.
563 -verbosity level
566 level output
568 < 0 only fatal error messages
569 0 non-fatal warning messages
570 1 basic information
571 2 basic diagnostics
572 3 more detailed diagnostics
573 4 very detailed diagnostics
574 The default value is 0.
576 -version
579 Display current version information, along with a list of com‐
580 pile-time options that xplanet supports.
581 -vroot Render the image to the virtual root window. Some window man‐
584 agers use one big window that sits over the real root window as
585 their background window. Xscreensaver uses a virtual root win‐
586 dow to cover the screen as well.
587 -wait wait
590 Update every wait seconds.
591 -window
594 Render the image to its own X window. The size defaults to 512
595 by 512 pixels but this may be set by the -geometry flag.
596 -window_title title
599 Set the window's title to title. This option implies -window.
600 -xscreensaver
603 Same as -vroot.
604 XPLANET(1)