The configuration dialog is automaticaly opened when the program is launched for the first time. A user shall provide the geographical coordinates of observation site, otherwise the computed values won't be valid for the site. You can change the entered values later, in the configuration dialog.
Start the program Ephemerides. When the program is started for the first time, the configuration dialog is automaticaly displayed.
Enter the name of the observation site and its geographical coordinates - latitude and longitude. The values are given in the decimal form, e.g. 16.6667 and 49.2167 for Brno, Czech republic. Use positive values of longitude for locations on the eastern hemisphere and negative values for the western hemisphere. Use positive values of latitude for locations on the northern hemisphere and negative values for the southern hemisphere.
If your computer is set to the local time zone, you can let the time zone parameter set to the default value 'Read from system', which means that the program will read the standard time zone from the opeating system. Please note, that displayed times of minima, rise times and set times of celestial objects are presented always in UTC, regardless of the time zone selected.
Click on the Save button to save configuration settings and close the dialog. Now, you have finished the configuration and you can make ephemerides. The settings are saved to the configuration file and this dialog won't appear. You can change the location in the Setup dialog.
The page Daily ephemerides is designed to find all minima for a subset of variable stars which occur on a specified night.
Click on the tab Daily ephemerides.
Enter a date which you want to compute data for, this field is automaticaly filled with actual date. You have to specify the date that is valid before midnight (evening date).
In the section Catalogues, check all catalogues for simplicity.
In the next section Filters, specify conditions for selecting variable stars and times of minimum. Only records that meet all conditions will be displayed. Check the field Time of minimum and check the option during nighttime. It means that only minima that occur after the dusk and before dawn will be displayed. Check the field Altitude and set the field from to the value 25 and the field to to value 90. It means that only minima that occur on altitudes (elevations) grater than 25 degree will be listed. You can leave all other filters unchecked.
Click on the Update button to make a list of minima. If you change the date or filter settings, it is necessary to start the computation again.
For more information about daily ephemerides, see this page.
The page Star ephemerides is designed to find all minima for a particular variable star that occur in a specified season.
Click on the tab Star ephemerides.
In the field Catalogue, choose the catalogue file that shall be researched.
In the next field Constellation, choose the constellation that the star is located in. Variables which do not include the name of the constellation in the name are enlisted in the OTHER group.
Select a star in the list of the Variable stars. The colon in the star's name indicates the secondary minimum.
Set up the interval of days that the ephemerides shall be computed for - section Date, fields from and to.
In the next section Filters, specify additional conditions for filtering minima, which shall be included in the results. Only the records that meet all conditions will be displayed. Check the field Time of minimum and check the option during nighttime. It means that only minima that occur after the dusk and before dawn will be displayed. Check the field Altitude and set the field from to the value 25 and the field to to value 90. It means that only minima that occur on altitudes (elevations) grater than 25 degree will be listed. You can leave all other filters unchecked.
Click on the Update button to make a list of minima. If you change the date or filter settings, it is necessary to start the computation again.
For more information about star ephemerides, see this page.