VII.2. Running the program

To proceed to drawing tracks of some objects select Tracks item in menu bar and then select Input Data in drop-down menu. Enter initial and final dates of time interval in corresponding data fields of the Input Data dialog box Input Data. Both dates should be expressed as year, month, day. Number of year can be specified within the limits from 1 to 9999. The final date must be greater than initial one; otherwise the track will contain only initial point.

Specify minor or major planet whose track should be drawn by introducing its number or name (remember that major planets from Mercury to Pluto can be specified by negative numbers from -1 to -9; it is obvious that the picture of apparent motion can not be constructed for the Earth).

After inserting specifications click on OK to initiate the process of drawing.

The frame with horizontal and vertical scales corresponding to the right ascension and declination axes appears on screen. Drawing tracks starts.

In default of specifications the part of the sky region within the frame corresponds to variation of the right ascension from 0 to 24 hours from right to left, and to variation of the declination from -90 degrees to +90 degrees from bottom to top. Depending on specifications introduced in the Input Data dialog box the picture represents tracks up to three different objects. Each track has its own colour. Position of object at initial moment is indicated by filled circle of the same color. To the right of the frame the coordinates and magnitudes of each object are located in separate boxes arranged one under the other (magnitudes of the major planets are not computed). At the top, above the boxes the moment of time that corresponds to positions of objects in the picture is indicated.