mirror of https://github.com/XEphem/XEphem.git
160 lines
6.1 KiB
Groff
160 lines
6.1 KiB
Groff
.TH XEphem 1X
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.SH Name
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XEphem 3.7 \- an interactive astronomical ephemeris for X11
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.SH Syntax
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\fBxephem [-prfb] [-install {yes|no|guess}] [-resfile <resourcefile>] [-[no]splash]\fP
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.SH Description
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.na
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.nh
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.PP
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XEphem is an interactive astronomical ephemeris program for the X Window System.
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It provides many graphical views as well as quantitative heliocentric,
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geocentric and topocentric information for Earth satellites, solar system
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and celestial objects.
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XEphem primarily uses two directories at runtime. One is referred to as the
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Shared directory, the other as the Private directory. Shared is read-only and
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holds supporting files that can be shared among all users on a system. Private
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is writable and one is expected to exist for each user. See the section
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below on X Resources for more information about defining these directories.
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XEphem contains extensive context-sensitive on-line help. Virtually none of
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that help is duplicated here so go ahead and run XEphem to learn more. The first
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thing to do once XEphem is up is configure the browser interface. All of
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XEphem help is written in html and stored in a file named xephem.html. The
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first entry in the Help menu brings up a table of browsers and defines a command
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for each that will invoke the browser and pass it the URL and anchor of the
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text to display. XEphem comes configured to support several different
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browsers. If yours is listed, just click the button to its left and your help
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system should be working. If your browser is not listed, please check the FAQ
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for the latest news.
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Note that if you are running XEphem under cygwin on Windows, before starting
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XEphem set an environment variable XEHELPURL to the full path of the
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xephem.html file on your system using Windows path syntax (not cygwin paths).
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This file is in the
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.I help
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directory within the source directory of the master distribution.
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After this is in the place, run xephem and it can use MS IE to display help.
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The XEphem
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.I Main window
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is the master panel for setting up observing circumstances, time looping, and
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for accessing all the additional tools and displays.
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Observing circumstances includes location, date, time, local magnetic deviation
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and atmospheric conditions (used for the refraction model).
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Looping provides the ability to
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set up XEphem so that it automatically increments time at a desired step size
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and rate. Additional displays provide all of the graphical and quantitative
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information available, which are always computed with respect to the
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circumstances defined in the Main menu. Tools provide access to plotting,
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searching, AAVSO and much more.
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.SH Command line Options
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.B -prfb
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displays all the built-in default resources, then exits. Some of them are
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described here.
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.B -install
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controls whether XEphem will install a private colormap. Without this option
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XEphem will try to decide automatically whether it is necessary. To force
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using a private colormap, use
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.I -install yes.
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To prevent it, use
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.I -install no.
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The default automatic behavior is equivalent to
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.I -install guess.
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.B -resfile <resourcefile>
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tells XEphem to use an alternate file for initial resource settings. See below
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for the default situation.
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.B -splash
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or
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.B -nosplash
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controls whether XEphem will display a progress window front and center while it is
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coming up. The choice is yours because this can be a useful sign of life on a
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slow system, or be the source of an annoying flash on a fast system. The setting
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is persistent so it will remain until changed.
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.SH Menu Tour
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.B File
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This menu controls access to the System log;
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setting up network access; accessing the gallery;
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displaying a progress meter; controlling time and location information
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remotely; and keyboard accelerators for time stepping.
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.B View
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This menu offers several graphical displays if the Sun, Earth, Moon and several
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planets; a user configurable data table; and Sky and Solar System views.
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.B Tools
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This menu gives access to tools which can plot any XEphem
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data items; save any data items to text files for easy export to other
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programs; enter an arbitrary function to evaluate and solve using any
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XEphem data items; access AAVSO online; show the Night at a glance; find close
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pairs of objects; convert among various astonomical coordinate systems; and a
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handy log for taking observing notes.
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.B Data
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This menu gives control over which objects XEphem will work with.
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Objects may be created on the fly, read from catalog files, downloaded
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from the Internet, deleted or searched. A special category of objects known as
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.I Field Stars
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may be configured, which are very large catalogs of objects whose access
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has been optimized. Any number of
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.I Favorite
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objects may be defined for especially
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easy access in several other places throughout XEphem.
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.B Preferences
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This menu offers several configuration choices and tools for changing fonts
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and colors used throughout XEphem.
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These choices can be changed at runtime and saved to disk to become the new defaults.
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.B Help
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This menu offers overall information about XEphem;
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context sensitive help;
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references; version number and the Copyright statement.
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.SH X Resources
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When first started, XEphem looks for a file named
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.B .xephemrc
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in your $HOME directory. It should contain one line of the form:
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XEphem.PrivateDir: ~/.xephem
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This defines the Private directory, where XEphem will store your personal
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settings. The example line shown here, which is also the assumption if the
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file is not present, means XEphem will create and use a directory named
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.B .xephem
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for this purpose in your home directory.
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Within this directory a text file named
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.B XEphem
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will contain all the Preferences that differ from those built in. One
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important entry defines the Shared directory. This is in intended for
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multi-user installations. XEphem looks here for support files. Unless
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defined otherwise, the Shared directory is ".", that is, the current
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directory.
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.SH Author
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.PP
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Elwood C. Downey, email ecdowney@ClearSkyInstitute.com.
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.SH References
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.PP
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The Web homepage, including the FAQ, is maintained at
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.I http://www.clearskyinstitute.com/xephem
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.PP
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The online Help entry
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.I on Credits
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lists many of the references, individuals and organizations which have
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contributed to XEphem.
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