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Hello Everyone and Welcome to the list!

We have about 15 subscribers now and the list is growing. I was
wondering if anyone would like to share their XEphem experiences? What
version are you running? Do you have any thoughts on how to improve
it? Does anyone want to just introduce themselves?

John Perry - perry@...

John Perry writes:

We have about 15 subscribers now and the list is growing.

Hello.

I'd still be interested in my initial query as to who is running the
latest version of XEphem and what your impressions are? I'm still
happily running v 3.2.3 but will eventually upgrade if I hear enough
good things :-)

Esmail
--
Esmail Bonakdarian - esmail@... -

Esmail Bonakdarian wrote:

I'd still be interested in my initial query as to who is running the
latest version of XEphem and what your impressions are? I'm still
happily running v 3.2.3 but will eventually upgrade if I hear enough
good things :-)

I'm using 3.4 and don't quiet like it as much as 3.2, it doesn't seem
to work as well with Lesstif and the catalog format changed from .xe
to .xe2. I found a conversion utility that converted .xe to .xe2 as
.xe2 might not be available for free download. Anyway I'm now using
ppm.xe2 instead of tycho.xe because I'm not sure tycho.xe2 will work.
I really haven't had the time to dig into it yet.

--
clear skies, |
Joe |
|Encrypted with ROT-26 - all attempts to decrypt
|are illegal under the DMCA!

"John Perry" <perry@...> wrote:

We have about 15 subscribers now and the list is growing. I was
wondering if anyone would like to share their XEphem experiences? What
version are you running? Do you have any thoughts on how to improve
it? Does anyone want to just introduce themselves?

Hi, folks. I've just found this list and signed on. I'm the technical
director at the Frosty Drew Observatory (FDO - )
where I'm responsible for the care and feeding of a 16" LX-200. It's
a volunteer position; in my professional life I'm a Unix/networking
consultant.

I started running XEphem on a Sun 4/470 around 1992 or so. Since then
I've always had a version running on a machine, usually my Sun IPX (with
the PowerUp chip - oooh, an 80MHz Sparc :). Its traditional role is that
of a planetarium program, giving me a map for a particular date or answering
the inevitable question "What's up tonight?"

I'm currently transitioning into a new non-consulting job (what are these
paid vacations I keep hearing about?), and they've given me a nice IBM
ThinkPad to work on. The first thing I did was turn it into a dual-booting
machine. I can't just fdisk Windoze off the thing, but I don't have to use
it unless absolutely necessary! I've since grabbed the newest version of
XEphem and put that on. I can't wait to bring it to FDO and hook it up to
the big scope!

We've got a decent computer at FDO, and it's dual-booting as well, but
since it has to be used by multiple people, I've had scant opportunity to
boot it into Linux and use XEphem. Back in the early days, good astronomical
software was difficult to obtain, especially for PCs. XEphem has given
me a lot of help over the years! Nowadays, there's certainly no dearth
of good astro-ware for Windows. Part of my job as technical director has
been to winnow through the software available and come up with a few packages
that we can learn in-depth. Unfortunately, everyone else at FDO runs
the dreaded Redmond Curse, so convincing them of the joys of XEphem is
a lot more difficult than it used to be.

With the new laptop and a renewed sense of zeal, I hope to be able to
jump back into the deep end of the pool and put the scope and XEphem through
its paces. I really like the simple manner in which I can add comets,
satellites and the like, and now that I have a cable modem, I've had a lot
of fun with the DSS images!

I'll have to play with the new version a bit more to say what I'd like to
see in it, but one thing I'd love is for FDO to get added to the location
database! (41:22:02 N, 71:39:49 W, elevation 3 meters if you're out there,
Elwood :)


======================================================================
Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@...
12 Emma G Lane, Narragansett, RI 02882 - vox 401.338.9214
Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa

John Perry wrote:

Hello Everyone and Welcome to the list!

We have about 15 subscribers now and the list is growing. I was
wondering if anyone would like to share their XEphem experiences? What
version are you running? Do you have any thoughts on how to improve
it? Does anyone want to just introduce themselves?

John,

I was very excited to find this software. I am new to astronomy and had
really hoped I could find good astronomy software for Unix. I downloaded
and built v3.2.3 to try it out on my Solaris boxes (I work for Sun
Microsystems) and Linux (on my laptop) - I was very impressed with what I
saw and ended up registering (buying a copy from Elwood).

I've run through several of the 'examples' (tutorials) as found under the
Help->Examples menu. I wish there were more because I found that doing
these exercises really helped me learn/understand how the software works.

From what I can gather, the software is very powerful -- but I have yet to
figure out how to tap into all it's features (example: How could you use
this software to forcast the next solar eclipse?)

I regularly use it create & print sky views to find where interesting
objects will be on a given night. I've used the 'examples' to create a
plot for comets (e.g. Comet 1999 LINEAR / S4).

I am interested in the new LX-200 command set feature of v3.4. I had
thought about writing my own filter for the previous version by creating a
named pipe (FIFO) in Unix to control my ETX-125 (which uses the LX-200
command set -- or at least a subset of it).

Regards
Tim
Dearborn, MI

On Wed, 24 Jan 2001, Joe Hartley wrote:

I'll have to play with the new version a bit more to say what I'd like to
see in it, but one thing I'd love is for FDO to get added to the location
database! (41:22:02 N, 71:39:49 W, elevation 3 meters if you're out there,
Elwood:)

Although Elwood gave his blessing on this mailing list, he had to decline
membership due to the volume of email he already gets. He asked that if
you have any suggestions (like adding your site) to be emailed to him
directly or posted to the discussion group on his webpage.

--
John Perry perry@... PGP-encrypted e-mail welcome!

PGP/GPG key 164BDBAE

On Wed, Jan 24, 2001 at 08:16:10PM -0500, Joseph E Ringer III wrote:

Esmail Bonakdarian wrote:

I'm using 3.4 and don't quiet like it as much as 3.2, it doesn't seem
to work as well with Lesstif and the catalog format changed from .xe

3.4 works great with the real Motif which is free now. Checkout
to download Motif.


--
Arturo C | acjr(at)hal(dash)pc(dot)org
Art is anything you can get away with.
-- Marshall McLuhan.

On Wed, 24 Jan 2001, John A. Perry wrote:

Although Elwood gave his blessing on this mailing list, he had to decline
membership due to the volume of email he already gets. He asked that if
you have any suggestions (like adding your site) to be emailed to him
directly or posted to the discussion group on his webpage.

Hello...
Well as I see you are already collecting ideas, I also have one. :)
The idea to communicate with telescope through FIFOs and external
programs is really great. Why not expand that a bit? Add
user-configurable FIFOs. That way you get people writing all
sorts of 'add-ons'. For example it would be extremely simple to
write a shell script that would popup a window (xv, ee) with a
picture of a selected object. I already have (extremely buggy)
perl script that can listen to xephem FIFO and extract and print
in human-readable form data from the GCVS catalog. You could
have script that would open your browser and access information/pictures
of the object on the net or anything else you can think of.
Lookup and parse the Drayer code, let you write obs. log for
the object in your favourite editor... just right-click on object
and select the fifo you need. Config file should also be quite
simple. For example:

fifo1_filename menu_label
fifo2_filename menu_label
.
.
.

So, what do you think?

Domjan

--- In xephem@..., "John A. Perry" <perry@j...> wrote:

Although Elwood gave his blessing on this mailing list, he had to
decline membership due to the volume of email he already gets. He
asked that if you have any suggestions (like adding your site)
to be emailed to him directly or posted to the discussion group on
his webpage.

It turns out that Elwood has visited the xephem page at egroups and
was impressed enogh to join the list. I for one am glad he is here!
Welcome aboard Elwood!

John Perry - perry@...

--- In xephem@..., Domjan Svilkovic <dsvilko@p...> wrote:

Add user-configurable FIFOs.
[snip]
just right-click on object and select the fifo you need. Config
file should also be quite simple. For example:

fifo1_filename menu_label
fifo2_filename menu_label

So, what do you think?

Domjan

Hi Domjan,

I think this is an excellent idea. Let me see if I understand it.
The proposal is to add a config file of pathnames (to fifos) and
labels (that show up in the Sky View popup). But I wonder what is the
message content XEphem sends to the fifo? Did you have in mind the
same .edb string currently sent to xephem_loc_fifo? If so, the value
of the proposal would seem to be the ability to target different apps,
but does not seem to include an ability to send different information.

If one could also configure the data /content/ it increases the
utility even further. My idea for that would be to make another Tool,
similar to the List/Plot/Solve tools. All of these tools can
temporarily transform the data fields throughout XEphem into buttons
that let the user choose a set of fields for use by the Tool. A new
"Fifo" Tool could do the same: one could choose the fields one wishes
sent to the fifo. The final format could be each chosen field
formatted exactly as it appears under normal operation separated by a
newline (or tab, or comma -- that too could be configurable!).

So the Fifo tool lets one define a collection of output streams, and
specify a label, a path and the data fields sent to that stream. Of
course this collection could be edited, saved and loaded.

Now some issues occur to me. Ironically, defining the fifo content by
selecting fields does not offer a way to specify "send the .edb line"
because there is no field in XEphem that shows this line. Perhaps
there should be (anyway), or perhaps this particular format choice
could be handled as a special case selection within the Fifo tool.

It also seems a little limiting that the only way to cause the fifo
message to be generated is manually via the Sky View popup. I wonder
if there are other places and/or events that could also trigger the
generation of the message? If these could be identified, then that too
would be another aspect of configuring the Fifo.

I think I will stop here and get feedback from the group before
exploring this any further on my own. It does seem to have the
potential to become an exceptionally flexible (and hence powerful)
idea. In the spirit of UNIX, it greatly expands how XEphem can
function and participate as a tool, rather than be a relatively
isolated entity. And I like that very much.

Elwood

On Thu, 25 Jan 2001, Elwood Downey wrote:

Hi Domjan,

Em, hi! :)

I think this is an excellent idea. Let me see if I understand it.
The proposal is to add a config file of pathnames (to fifos) and
labels (that show up in the Sky View popup). But I wonder what is the
message content XEphem sends to the fifo? Did you have in mind the
same .edb string currently sent to xephem_loc_fifo? If so, the value
of the proposal would seem to be the ability to target different apps,
but does not seem to include an ability to send different information.

Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind. I think that the standard
.edb string contains enough information.

If one could also configure the data /content/ it increases the
utility even further. My idea for that would be to make another Tool,
similar to the List/Plot/Solve tools. All of these tools can
temporarily transform the data fields throughout XEphem into buttons
that let the user choose a set of fields for use by the Tool. A new
"Fifo" Tool could do the same: one could choose the fields one wishes
sent to the fifo. The final format could be each chosen field
formatted exactly as it appears under normal operation separated by a
newline (or tab, or comma -- that too could be configurable!).

That would really be great at least for 'fifo script developers' but
raw configuration would still have to be simple enough so that users
who are installing already made scripts could easily add needed lines
in config file.

On the other hand, creating a fifo script is not something you would
do every day so maybe even a simple 'vi' and README file would do.
If someone can write a perl script / C program than he/she shouldn't
have problems with manual configuration.

Now some issues occur to me. Ironically, defining the fifo content by
selecting fields does not offer a way to specify "send the .edb line"
because there is no field in XEphem that shows this line. Perhaps
there should be (anyway), or perhaps this particular format choice
could be handled as a special case selection within the Fifo tool.

That could be handy as .edb format is, well... standard. :)

It also seems a little limiting that the only way to cause the fifo
message to be generated is manually via the Sky View popup. I wonder
if there are other places and/or events that could also trigger the
generation of the message? If these could be identified, then that too
would be another aspect of configuring the Fifo.

Moon/Mars/Earth/Solar system. Links to CCD pictures in Moon View,
asteroid / commet information in Solar system... Solution from
equation solver...
Maybe even from the main loop (something like list values, just tu fifo).

I think I will stop here and get feedback from the group before
exploring this any further on my own. It does seem to have the
potential to become an exceptionally flexible (and hence powerful)
idea. In the spirit of UNIX, it greatly expands how XEphem can
function and participate as a tool, rather than be a relatively
isolated entity. And I like that very much.

When I transferd from DOS to linux one of the first really nice
surprises was that there _is_ a really good astronomy software for
unix. And in Xephem the idea that shocked me the most was the idea
of fifo communication because it was, as a philosophy, completely
new to me. You just don't see that kind of stuff in DOS or windows
programs. It really is a unix philosophy, and a powerful one.

Well, enough from me. I should probably let prefessionals handle it
from here. :)

And 10x for the _really_ great soft!

-_
DoS / /~
#()#
ADI member -> www.ad-beskraj.hr /_####
JSP: jagor.srce.hr/~dsvilko/japetic ======

Joseph E Ringer III writes:

I'm using 3.4 and don't quiet like it as much as 3.2, it doesn't seem
to work as well with Lesstif and the catalog format changed from .xe
to .xe2.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the comments. I actually use Motif, so I don't know how
much of an issue this might be.

Esmail
--
Esmail Bonakdarian - esmail@... -

Joe Hartley writes:

"John Perry" <perry@...> wrote:
Does anyone want to just introduce themselves?

Hi, folks. I've just found this list and signed on. I'm the technical
director at the Frosty Drew Observatory (FDO - )

Hiya,

Might as well introduce myself too.

I am, or I should say, was a "tenured" graduate student until the end
of last year. I now have my Ph.D. in Comp Scie, but no job yet, which
means no bigger scope yet either (or a CD copy of XEphem).

I got started with this hobby in earnest last May. Trigger was a small
program for the Palm called Planetarium, I really recommend it highly
(see my links on ). I then
discovered XEphem and got it running on my Linux box. Once I had that,
I got a pair of 10x50 binocs and started looking around the night sky,
often with charts drawn with XEphem. After a month or two of that I
got an ST80 (Celestron).

As I use Linux all the time I have been using XEphem regularly
(v3.2.3) and I really like it. I look forward to getting the latest
version on CD as soon as I am gainfully employed :-)

My next scope will most likely be an Orion XT-8 (Dobsian), but it will
have to wait for the job and move.

That's about it. Oh yea, I'm in Iowa, where it's COLD in the winter.

Esmail
PS: I also compiled and run v3.2.3 successfully on an SGI Indy, just
for testing purposes.
--
Esmail Bonakdarian - esmail@... -