The Photographers Ephemeris

[BobH]

This is the ultimate tool for sunrise & sunset and moonrise & moonset information for photographers.

There are plenty of places on the web you can find information about what time the sun rises and sets. A lot of them will also tell you the sun or moon's position in the sky when they rise and set.

This application goes one step furthers and plots that information on a Google topographic map!

Landscape photographers typically wish to plan their shoots around the times of sunrise/sunset or twilight, or alternatively when the moon is in a particular place in a particular phase.

While times of sunrise etc. are readily available on various sites on the internet (direction of sunrise etc. less so, but still readily found), there are fewer programs available which combine such information with a topographical map allowing the photographer to match the astronomical to the location.

A typical use might be to determine when the sun will set along the axis of a mountain valley, or when a full moon rise will rise across a lake.

The application uses Google Maps providing users the ability to select a location and determine the time and azimuth of sunrise or sunset for a given date or dates.

It's incredible! You simply click the location you want to shoot, and the day you'll be shooting on. It then draws a line to where the sun will be rising and setting and where the moon will rise and set.

This program is very useful for working with moon photography. The sun's location and time only varies slightly from day to day, but the time that the moon rises and the angle it will be located varies a lot from day to day. As an example, on the 5th it was about 20 minutes later than the night before, and about 8 degrees further north.

The program runs on Adobe AIR, and so it can be used on either a Windows or Mac machine.

Here's a screen shot, notice how nice the program looks.

[BobH]

OK Bob, it's pretty and looks fancy, but does it really work?

Yes, it does. The screenshot I show above is displaying the data for September 5th, 2009. There's a reason for that, I happened to be shooting the moon from that location on September 5th.

Here's the resulting image. Compare it to the location shown above.

Qwest Field, for those not familiar with it, is the large white arch to the left of the moon. So the moon is a little south of the moonrise position indicated on the map. The shot I've shown is well past moonrise, taken nearly an hour and a half later, so it's not surprising it's not in exactly the same position. It's also possible I may not have been shooting from exactly the position I put the marker on the map, I can't recall exactly where we stopped that evening, but it was within a short distance of where I show it.

It seems pretty accurate to me.

[BobH]

So where do you get this program and how much does it cost?

You can download the program here:
http://stephentrainor.com/tools

The cost? That's the best part. It's free! Not shareware, but totally free. The developer will accept donations, and it's still in beta which means he may come out with a pay version at some point, but this one works well, and it's free.

A special thanks to Adam Angel from the Mt. Rainier Institute of Photography for telling me about this nifty program.

Of course Mt Rainier is an excellent candidate for this program. Always wanted a shot of the moon rising over the mountain? This program will tell you where to be and when...

[BobH]

Here's a good example of what this program does best:

On November 4th there will be a full moon rising at 5:47 pm, which is about an hour after sunset. If you head for the very tip of Alki, the moon will be rising pretty close to the Space Needle.

So, get out your tripods and 400 mm lens!

[Twick]

Thanks for the link. This is a great little program. User friendly, quick to download. I've been looking for something like this for sometime. I always could handle the times but the location was hit and miss. Now, if it could just predict the weather.

[JaniceL]

Wow, how cool is this? Thank you!

[BobH]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris Tutorials.

The program's author has placed some very nice tutorials on his website:

Using TPE, Part 1: the basics

Using TPE, Part 2: Twilight and Details View

Using TPE, Part 3: Geodesy

Using TPE, Part 4: the Horizon

[Steve Carter]

Exactly what I was looking for as well. And while predeciting the weather would be great, it would be much better if the app allowed you to control the weather.

Thanks Bob!

[BobH]

Version 1.0 is now out. (Previous versions were Betas)

Still free as far as I know.

[Cher O]

in the excitement of getting great FREE software, no one has told you what a magnificent photo you got using the program....!!! It is beautiful! Very interesting colors for a night shot, deep maroons.... clear... and the moon itself is gorgeous in your photo... Wonderful. They could use this to sell the software if they were charging for it. So let me be the first... Great photo! C.