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- xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm((((1111XXXX)))) XXXXEEEENNNNIIIIXXXX SSSSyyyysssstttteeeemmmm VVVV xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm((((1111XXXX))))
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- NNNNaaaammmmeeee
- xephem - an interactive astronomical ephemeris for X
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- SSSSyyyynnnnttttaaaaxxxx
- xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm
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- DDDDeeeessssccccrrrriiiippppttttiiiioooonnnn
- XXXXeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm is an interactive astronomical ephemeris program for
- X Windows. It has built-in support for all planets plus
- support for arbitrary objects given their heliocentric
- orbital elements. Xephem generates tabular and graphical
- schematic views of the sky and solar system objects, can
- plot and list data, and can search for arbitrary user-
- defined circumstances.
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- Xephem contains extensive context-senstive on-line help.
- Virtually none of that help is duplicated here so go ahead
- and run xephem to learn more. In order for xephem to find
- this help text the resource `XEphem.HELPFILE' must be set to
- the pathname of the xephem.hlp file.
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- MMMMaaaaiiiinnnn MMMMeeeennnnuuuu
- The main menu of xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm provides control and display of
- three basic services: observing circumstances, looping, and
- access to additional displays.
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- Observing circumstances includes location, time and
- atmospheric conditions (used for the refraction model).
- Looping refers to the ability to set xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm so that it
- automatically increments time and a desired step size and
- rate. The additional displays provide all of the tabular
- and graphical information available, and always refer to the
- circumstances defined in the main menu. The additional
- displays are activated from the _V_i_e_w_s pulldown.
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- XXXXeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm has information about the Solar system planets and
- several moons built in. These can be accessed without the
- need to access an external database. However, if a database
- of objects is available then xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm can read this
- information into memory and use it as well. The database is
- read in using the _D_B... pulldown. The objects may be
- inspected in detail, manipulated and assigned to so-called
- `user defined objects' X and Y using the _O_b_j_X/_Y... pulldown.
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- All of the tabular data that xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm presents can be written
- to a file and later plotted, written in a tabular listing,
- or used to formulate an arbitrary mathematical expression
- that can be solved for a maximum, minimum or zero. All of
- these facilities are accessed from the _C_o_n_t_r_o_l pulldown.
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- Several display and accuracy formating options may be
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- Page 1 (printed 7/22/94)
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- xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm((((1111XXXX)))) XXXXEEEENNNNIIIIXXXX SSSSyyyysssstttteeeemmmm VVVV xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm((((1111XXXX))))
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- controlled from the _P_r_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s pulldown.
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- Finally, the _H_e_l_p pulldown provides several categories of
- assistance applicable to the overall operation of xxxxeeeepppphhhheeeemmmm....
- Beginners might start by reading the _I_n_t_r_o_d_u_c_t_i_o_n help
- section.
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- RRRReeeessssoooouuuurrrrcccceeeessss
- XEphem has many resources, many of which you will soon want
- to tune to your taste and circumstances; many others may be
- left unchanged. Look through the XEphem.ad distribution for
- full details.
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- Of course, in addition to all the custom resources, xephem
- supports the usual Xt resources such as -display, -xrm, -fg
- and -bg.
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- The application class of xephem is XEphem.
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- A list of widgets in xephem would be enormous. If you really
- want such a list, build xephem for X11R5 and use the editres
- feature. The necessary code is in xephem.c surrounded by
- #ifdef WANT_EDITRES.
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- AAAAuuuutttthhhhoooorrrr
- Elwood Downey, currently at
- ecdowney@pobox.cca.cr.rockwell.com
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- SSSSeeeeeeee aaaallllssssoooo
- Ephem, the ancestor of xephem suitable for "dumb" 24x80
- character displays, including VMS and DOS as well as UNIX.
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- Ephem and xephem are both on export.lcs.mit.edu; look for
- contrib/ephem* and contrib/xephem* for the latest releases.
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- Page 2 (printed 7/22/94)
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