
			Welcome to xephem v3.0

Xephem is an interactive astronomical ephemeris program for X Windows systems.
For a full list of features and the latest news, please see the xephem home
page at:

    http://iraf.noao.edu/~ecdowney/xephem.html.


The complete xephem version 3.0 release kit is a compressed tar file at:

    ftp://iraf.noao.edu/contrib/xephem/xephem_3.0/xephem_3.0.tar.gz.


Xephem requires at least X11R4 and OSF/Motif 1.1. Xephem has been built on
many UNIX systems as well as VMS. A list of known ported systems and building
hints may be found in the file INSTALL.


There is only a small manual, but there is extensive on-line help, including
step-by-step examples. So, the first thing to do is to build xephem then start
selecting the Help buttons.  A good order to read the help entries is the way
they are listed in the Help pulldown off the Main menu. Instructions for
building xephem may be found in the file INSTALL.


Xephem uses several X resources to name supporting files and directories. The
sample X defaults file, XEphem.ad, and the fallback resources in xephem.c, have
these defined relative to the top level directory. You may want to rearrange
things for your installation. See the file INSTALL for a list of all the files
used by xephem at runtime. The comments throughout XEphem.ad will also help you
set up all the X resource defaults for xephem.


I would like to hear what you think of xephem. If you drop me a quick note I
will save your email address and directly send you announcements of changes.
Thank you for your interest in xephem.


Elwood Downey
ecdowney@noao.edu
February, 1997
