1XEphem(1X)
2XEphem(1X)
3[1mName[0m
7 XEphem ‐ an interactive astronomical ephemeris for X11
8[1mSyntax[0m
10 [1mxephem [‐prfb] [‐install {yes|no|guess}] [‐resfile
11<resourcefile>][0m
12 [1m[‐[no]splash][0m
13[1mDescription[0m
15 XEphem is an interactive astronomical ephemeris program
16for the X
17 Window System. It provides many graphical views as well
18as
19 quantitative heliocentric, geocentric and topocentric in‐
20formation for
21 Earth satellites, solar system and celestial objects.
22 XEphem primarily uses two directories at runtime. One is
24referred to as
25 the Shared directory, the other as the Private directory.
26Shared is
27 read‐only and holds supporting files that can be shared
28among all users
29 on a system. Private is writable and one is expected to
30exist for each
31 user. See the section below on X Resources for more infor‐
32mation about
33 defining these directories.
34 XEphem contains extensive context‐sensitive on‐line help.
36Virtually
37 none of that help is duplicated here so go ahead and run
38XEphem to
39 learn more. The first thing to do once XEphem is up is
40configure the
41 browser interface. All of XEphem help is written in html
42and stored in
43 a file named xephem.html. The first entry in the Help menu
44brings up a
45 table of browsers and defines a command for each that will
46invoke the
47 browser and pass it the URL and anchor of the text to dis‐
48play. XEphem
49 comes configured to support several different browsers. If
50yours is
51 listed, just click the button to its left and your help
52system should
53 be working. If your browser is not listed, please check
54the FAQ for the
55 latest news.
56 Note that if you are running XEphem under cygwin on Win‐
58dows, before
59 starting XEphem set an environment variable XEHELPURL to
60the full path
61 of the xephem.html file on your system using Windows path
62syntax (not
63 cygwin paths). This file is in the [4mhelp[24m directory
64within the source
65 directory of the master distribution. After this is in
66the place, run
67 xephem and it can use MS IE to display help.
68 The XEphem [4mMain[24m [4mwindow[24m is the master panel
70for setting up observing
71 circumstances, time looping, and for accessing all the ad‐
72ditional tools
73 and displays. Observing circumstances includes location,
74date, time,
75 local magnetic deviation and atmospheric conditions (used
76for the
77 refraction model). Looping provides the ability to set up
78XEphem so
79 that it automatically increments time at a desired step
80size and rate.
81 Additional displays provide all of the graphical and quan‐
82titative
83 information available, which are always computed with re‐
84spect to the
85 circumstances defined in the Main menu. Tools provide ac‐
86cess to
87 plotting, searching, AAVSO and much more.
88[1mCommand line Options[0m
91 [1m‐prfb [22mdisplays all the built‐in default resources,
92then exits. Some of
93 them are described here.
94 [1m‐install [22mcontrols whether XEphem will install a
96private colormap.
97 Without this option XEphem will try to decide automatical‐
98ly whether it
99 is necessary. To force using a private colormap, use [4m‐
100install[24m [4myes.[24m To
101 prevent it, use [4m‐install[24m [4mno.[24m The default
102automatic behavior is
103 equivalent to [4m‐install[24m [4mguess.[0m
104 [1m‐resfile <resourcefile> [22mtells XEphem to use an al‐
106ternate file for
107 initial resource settings. See below for the default situ‐
108ation.
109 [1m‐splash [22mor [1m‐nosplash [22mcontrols whether XEphem
111will display a progress
112 window front and center while it is coming up. The choice
113is yours
114 because this can be a useful sign of life on a slow sys‐
115tem, or be the
116 source of an annoying flash on a fast system. The setting
117is persistent
118 so it will remain until changed.
119[1mMenu Tour[0m
122 [1mFile[0m
123 This menu controls access to the System log; setting up
125network access;
126 accessing the gallery; displaying a progress meter; con‐
127trolling time
128 and location information remotely; and keyboard accelera‐
129tors for time
130 stepping.
131 [1mView[0m
133 This menu offers several graphical displays if the Sun,
135Earth, Moon and
136 several planets; a user configurable data table; and Sky
137and Solar
138 System views.
139 [1mTools[0m
141 This menu gives access to tools which can plot any XEphem
143data items;
144 save any data items to text files for easy export to other
145programs;
146 enter an arbitrary function to evaluate and solve using
147any XEphem data
148 items; access AAVSO online; show the Night at a glance;
149find close
150 pairs of objects; convert among various astonomical coor‐
151dinate systems;
152 and a handy log for taking observing notes.
153 [1mData[0m
155 This menu gives control over which objects XEphem will
157work with.
158 Objects may be created on the fly, read from catalog
159files, downloaded
160 from the Internet, deleted or searched. A special category
161of objects
162 known as [4mField[24m [4mStars[24m may be configured,
163which are very large catalogs
164 of objects whose access has been optimized. Any number of
165[4mFavorite[0m
166 objects may be defined for especially easy access in sev‐
167eral other
168 places throughout XEphem.
169 [1mPreferences[0m
171 This menu offers several configuration choices and tools
173for changing
174 fonts and colors used throughout XEphem. These choices
175can be changed
176 at runtime and saved to disk to become the new defaults.
177 [1mHelp[0m
179 This menu offers overall information about XEphem; context
181sensitive
182 help; references; version number and the Copyright state‐
183ment.
184[1mX Resources[0m
187 When first started, XEphem looks for a file named
188[1m.xephemrc [22min your
189 $HOME directory. It should contain one line of the form:
190 XEphem.PrivateDir: ~/.xephem
192 This defines the Private directory, where XEphem will
194store your
195 personal settings. The example line shown here, which is
196also the
197 assumption if the file is not present, means XEphem will
198create and use
199 a directory named [1m.xephem [22mfor this purpose in your
200home directory.
201 Within this directory a text file named [1mXEphem [22mwill
203contain all the
204 Preferences that differ from those built in. One important
205entry
206 defines the Shared directory. This is in intended for mul‐
207ti‐user
208 installations. XEphem looks here for support files. Unless
209defined
210 otherwise, the Shared directory is ".", that is, the cur‐
211rent directory.
212[1mAuthor[0m
215 Elwood C. Downey, email ecdowney@ClearSkyInstitute.com.
216[1mReferences[0m
219 The Web homepage, including the FAQ, is maintained at
220 [4mhttp://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem[0m
221 The online Help entry [4mon[24m [4mCredits[24m lists many
223of the references,
224 individuals and organizations which have contributed to
225XEphem.
226 XEphem(1X)
230