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XEphem(1X)							    XEphem(1X)

Name
       XEphem -	an interactive astronomical ephemeris for X11

Syntax
       xephem  [-prfb]	[-install  {yes|no|guess}]  [-resfile  <resourcefile>]
       [-[no]splash]

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 help	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 Main window 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
       -prfb displays all the built-in default resources, then exits. Some of
       them are	described here.

       -install	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 -install yes.  To
       prevent it, use -install	no.  The default automatic behavior is
       equivalent to -install guess.

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

       -splash or -nosplash 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
       File

       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.

       View

       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.

       Tools

       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.

       Data

       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	Field Stars may	be configured, which are very large catalogs
       of objects whose	access has been	optimized. Any number of Favorite
       objects may be defined for especially easy access in several other
       places throughout XEphem.

       Preferences

       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.

       Help

       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 .xephemrc 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 .xephem for this purpose in your home directory.

       Within this directory a text file named XEphem 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
       http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem

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

								    XEphem(1X)

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