Xephem is a very old UNIX program, that is still able to be installed on a modern Ubuntu 18 desktop.
Download all of the packages here into a new folder.
http://e2rd.piekielko.pl/debian/binary-amd64/.
Then we need to prepare for the installation of the packages.
Install these two packages with apt to satisfy dependencies.
libmotif-common
libxm4 |
Then we can install the packages. Installing the main program now.
4.4 Sun Dec 30 jason@Yog-Sothoth 0: $ sudo dpkg -i xephem_3.7.7-4_amd64.deb (Reading database ... 472940 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack xephem_3.7.7-4_amd64.deb ... Unpacking xephem (3.7.7-4) over (3.7.7-4) ... Setting up xephem (3.7.7-4) ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1ubuntu3.18.04.2) ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-11ubuntu1.1) ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3+18.04.20180207.2-0ubuntu1) ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ... Processing triggers for menu (2.1.47ubuntu2.1) ... |
And install the required star catalogs.
4.4 Sun Dec 30 jason@Yog-Sothoth 0: $ sudo dpkg -i xephem-catalogs_0.0.20161106-1_all.deb Selecting previously unselected package xephem-catalogs. (Reading database ... 472940 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack xephem-catalogs_0.0.20161106-1_all.deb ... Unpacking xephem-catalogs (0.0.20161106-1) ... Setting up xephem-catalogs (0.0.20161106-1) ... |
After all of this, the program is ready to run.
This is a dated Motif interface, but easy to use. Just set your location and you are ready to go. Below is the Xephem sky view.
And a nice view of the Moon, showing all Apollo landing sites and other nice tourist attractions.
Also, there is a data table showing the Declination and Azimuth of various sky objects.
This is very useful to program into a telescope to find a stellar object, also Xephem can directly control a suitable telescope, this means that the `scope would automatically track to a desired object.
Finally, there is even a sun view, but the image I got was from 2009.
This is a very nice program. Good to get a quick view of the solar system and look for a certain stellar object. I used to play around with this program ages ago and it is great that it still works very well. I tried to compile this on a Macbook, but it did not work.
Thanks, these instructions worked fine for me with Linux Mint 19.1.