


XEphem(1X)                                                         XEphem(1X)



Name
  XEphem 3.7 - an interactive astronomical ephemeris for X11

Syntax
  xxeepphheemm [[--pprrffbb]] [[--iinnssttaallll {{yyeess||nnoo||gguueessss}}]] [[--rreessffiillee <<rreessoouurrcceeffiillee>>]] [[--
  [[nnoo]]ssppllaasshh]]

Description

  XEphem is an interactive astronomical ephemeris program for the X Window
  System.  It provides many graphical views as well as quantitative
  heliocentric, geocentric and topocentric information for Earth satellites,
  solar system and celestial objects.

  XEphem primarily uses two directories at runtime. One is referred to as the
  Shared directory, the other as the Private directory. Shared is read-only
  and holds supporting files that can be shared among all users on a system.
  Private is writable and one is expected to exist for each user. See the
  section below on X Resources for more information about defining these
  directories.

  XEphem contains extensive context-sensitive on-line help. Virtually none of
  that help is duplicated here so go ahead and run XEphem to learn more. The
  first thing to do once XEphem is up is configure the browser interface. All
  of XEphem help is written in html and stored in a file named xephem.html.
  The first entry in the Help menu brings up a table of browsers and defines
  a command for each that will invoke the browser and pass it the URL and
  anchor of the text to display. XEphem comes configured to support several
  different browsers. If yours is listed, just click the button to its left
  and your help system should be working. If your browser is not listed,
  please check the FAQ for the latest news.

  Note that if you are running XEphem under cygwin on Windows, before
  starting XEphem set an environment variable XEHELPURL to the full path of
  the xephem.html file on your system using Windows path syntax (not cygwin
  paths).  This file is in the _h_e_l_p directory within the source directory of
  the master distribution.  After this is in the place, run xephem and it can
  use MS IE to display help.

  The XEphem _M_a_i_n _w_i_n_d_o_w is the master panel for setting up observing
  circumstances, time looping, and for accessing all the additional tools and
  displays.  Observing circumstances includes location, date, time, local
  magnetic deviation and atmospheric conditions (used for the refraction
  model).  Looping provides the ability to set up XEphem so that it
  automatically increments time at a desired step size and rate. Additional
  displays provide all of the graphical and quantitative information
  available, which are always computed with respect to the circumstances
  defined in the Main menu. Tools provide access to plotting, searching,
  AAVSO and much more.




Command line Options
  --pprrffbb displays all the built-in default resources, then exits. Some of them
  are described here.

  --iinnssttaallll controls whether XEphem will install a private colormap. Without
  this option XEphem will try to decide automatically whether it is
  necessary. To force using a private colormap, use -_i_n_s_t_a_l_l _y_e_s. To prevent
  it, use -_i_n_s_t_a_l_l _n_o. The default automatic behavior is equivalent to -
  _i_n_s_t_a_l_l _g_u_e_s_s.

  --rreessffiillee <<rreessoouurrcceeffiillee>> tells XEphem to use an alternate file for initial
  resource settings. See below for the default situation.

  --ssppllaasshh or --nnoossppllaasshh controls whether XEphem will display a progress window
  front and center while it is coming up. The choice is yours because this
  can be a useful sign of life on a slow system, or be the source of an
  annoying flash on a fast system. The setting is persistent so it will
  remain until changed.


Menu Tour
  FFiillee

  This menu controls access to the System log; setting up network access;
  accessing the gallery; displaying a progress meter; controlling time and
  location information remotely; and keyboard accelerators for time stepping.

  VViieeww

  This menu offers several graphical displays if the Sun, Earth, Moon and
  several planets; a user configurable data table; and Sky and Solar System
  views.

  TToooollss

  This menu gives access to tools which can plot any XEphem data items; save
  any data items to text files for easy export to other programs; enter an
  arbitrary function to evaluate and solve using any XEphem data items;
  access AAVSO online; show the Night at a glance; find close pairs of
  objects; convert among various astonomical coordinate systems; and a handy
  log for taking observing notes.

  DDaattaa

  This menu gives control over which objects XEphem will work with.  Objects
  may be created on the fly, read from catalog files, downloaded from the
  Internet, deleted or searched. A special category of objects known as _F_i_e_l_d
  _S_t_a_r_s may be configured, which are very large catalogs of objects whose
  access has been optimized. Any number of _F_a_v_o_r_i_t_e objects may be defined
  for especially easy access in several other places throughout XEphem.

  PPrreeffeerreenncceess

  This menu offers several configuration choices and tools for changing fonts
  and colors used throughout XEphem.  These choices can be changed at runtime
  and saved to disk to become the new defaults.

  HHeellpp

  This menu offers overall information about XEphem; context sensitive help;
  references; version number and the Copyright statement.





X Resources
  When first started, XEphem looks for a file named ..xxeepphheemmrrcc in your $HOME
  directory. It should contain one line of the form:

  XEphem.PrivateDir: ~/.xephem

  This defines the Private directory, where XEphem will store your personal
  settings. The example line shown here, which is also the assumption if the
  file is not present, means XEphem will create and use a directory named
  ..xxeepphheemm for this purpose in your home directory.

  Within this directory a text file named XXEEpphheemm will contain all the
  Preferences that differ from those built in. One important entry defines
  the Shared directory. This is in intended for multi-user installations.
  XEphem looks here for support files. Unless defined otherwise, the Shared
  directory is ".", that is, the current directory.


Author

  Elwood C. Downey, email ecdowney@ClearSkyInstitute.com.


References

  The Web homepage, including the FAQ, is maintained at
  _h_t_t_p://_w_w_w._c_l_e_a_r_s_k_y_i_n_s_t_i_t_u_t_e._c_o_m/_x_e_p_h_e_m

  The online Help entry _o_n _C_r_e_d_i_t_s lists many of the references, individuals
  and organizations which have contributed to XEphem.










































