XEphem broken in testing -- any workaround?

["Michael Milligan" <timelord@myrealbox.com>]

Please refer to bug #152025 for more information.

When starting XEphem (going back I don't know how many versions) I have observed the following error messages:

$ xephem
Warning: Cannot convert string "*-lucidatypewriter*medium*-12-*" to type FontStruct
Tips: no fixed font ?!?

Note that lucidatypewriter does not come in size 12, and while tkfont can produce characters with this font string, xfontsel -fn "*-lucidatypewriter*medium*-12-*" produces the same "Cannot convert..." message.

Up through version 3.4-5 the program has started up fine after producing this message, but upon upgrading to 3.5-2 in testing, the program aborts after printing the warning.

Yes, I can override the fonts used by the program, in the ~/XEphem/XEphem resource file, but doing so has no effect on this behavior.

My question is: has anyone found a way to get around this behavior so that version 3.5-2 starts up?

Thanks,
...Michael