• Use the Index Summary or simply page through the book in thumbnail view to find a project of interest.
• Copy the data in any preparatory .csv file by selecting the text in the gray box and pasting it into your chart of spreadsheet software. Save the file as a .csv type of file and with the same name. You should know it is preparatory because it precedes the Python code that ends in .py.
• For the Python code that comes next, similarly copy the text in the gray box and paste into your choice of Python. I recommend Thonny for people just starting out. If you are using Thonny, save the file that you just pasted (by going to File > Save up in the menu bar) and then run the Python file by pressing F5 or clicking on the green arrow play icon up top. If you are a first-time user of Python, you likely will need to install packages by using the menu system. Consult Thonny references for how to do this.
• Often, the results will only be available upon running the Python file(s) in this way.
• The file structure in this book assumes that each project has its own folder and all related files are together in that folder.
• There are some large Swiss Ephemeris files for some projects. These only need to be downloaded once and kept in the related folder. You can just keep one version in a dedicated folder, but then please edit the Python file so that access to that Swiss Ephemeris folder is referenced. I will try to keep this in mind in my version of the Python files published here.
• You can download these Swiss Ephemeris files from here. Pay attention to the licensing.