Sunday Oct 11, 2009 at 23:20

The Photographer's Ephemeris

The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) for Desktop is a free application for Mac/Windows/Linux designed for landscape photographers.

Download

Get TPE for Desktop (free):

Get TPE for iOS:

Latest News

December 23 2012: TPE 1.1.1 is now available with some new features and bug fixes. Please head over to http://photoephemeris.com/support#desktop_support for more details. In particular, there is an issue with auto-update for TPE 1.1.0: please read the note on the support page for more information.

November 26 2011: TPE 1.1.0 is now available. A few important items in this update including an updated timezone database for Europe and, in particular, Russia. We’ve also added the ability to import and export your saved locations as KML. This allows you to share location files both with other users and other applications (such as Google Earth).

As you may have noticed, I still haven’t got all the TPE material migrated over to the main site, photoephemeris.com. I built the new site in Drupal and sort of wish I hadn’t as it’s a bit of a nightmare to manage as compared with dear old Textpattern (which is what this site uses).

However, I hope to have the migration complete in the next few weeks, so much of this material will be moving over at that time.

As usual:

TPE remains free
There’s no expiry date (as there was during Beta)
If you’d like to support the continued development of the desktop version, there’s a donate link on the right of this page (or consider purchasing our iOS or Android apps)

Many thanks to those who’ve offered support so far – it’s much appreciated.

Requirements
Installation
Tutorials
Using the program
Keyboard shortcuts
Configuration options
Advanced usage
Program expiry
Version history UPDATED
Some notes on how it works
Accuracy
Known issues
Feedback

Introduction

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.

So what’s new about this?

Not a huge amount – there are other programs out there that calculate the same data and more.

What I haven’t seen before is the combination of the key data together with a topographical map, courtesy of Google, in one program for either Windows or Mac.

If you’re already on location, this isn’t probably going to help. If you’re planning a trip, then perhaps this is the program for you.

Cost

Nothing. It’s free. Help yourself.

Also, the Adobe AIR version ~~will remain~~ has remained free post Beta.

However, developing and maintaining it is not without costs (hosting, Geonames commercial subscription, development tools etc.). If you’d like to support the continued development of TPE, please consider a donation – there’s a link to the right of this page.

Requirements

TPE uses Adobe AIR, so you’ll need to have that installed. You can obtain it here (for free):

Why do you need it? AIR is a framework for Rich Internet Applications – apps that combine the interactivity of the web with local programs that can run outside a browser environment. It is lightweight and unobtrusive and there is a wide variety of useful applications available that use it. Adobe AIR is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (up to AIR 2.5).

The program requires a connection to the internet to function.

Installation

Click here to download:

Once you’ve downloaded this file, double-click to install. I don’t currently have a code signing certificate for this application, so you’ll see scary-looking warnings about the publisher being “unknown” and program having unrestricted access to your system – you’ll have to make your own call here for now.

Adobe AIR 1.5.3 or later must already be installed (see above).

Please read the Terms of Use before installing.

Tutorials

I’m delighted to be able to include two excellent video tutorials on TPE produced by Jared at Yellow Wood Guiding close by in Estes Park, Colorado. Estes Park is, of course, the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the most popular of all – with good reason. Yellow Wood Guiding offers wildlife and nature tours of the park as well as photography safaris. If you’re in the area and plan on visiting the park, I encourage you to check them out.

However you prefer to learn, I’d encourage you to check out the keyboard shortcuts – I hope you’ll find they increase your productivity in TPE considerably.

Part 1

Watch Part 1 of “How to use the Photographer’s Ephemeris” for all the basics:

Part 2

…and Part 2 for the rest!

If you prefer reading to watching:

Here are some tutorials you can follow through at your pace that cover pretty much all TPE has to offer:

Part 1: The Basics
Part 2: Twilight and the Details View
Part 3: Geodesy
Part 4: The Horizon

Using the program

If you’d prefer the abbreviated instructions, and are in a hurry to get going, please read this section. The basic idea is as follows:

1) Pan around on the map to find a location you’re interested in, or drag and drop the red marker. Click the Centre button (located at bottom right of map, or press ‘C’) to place marker at the centre of the map
2) The “Ephemeris” table on the right shows you the sunrise/sunset/moonrise/moonset times (plus azimuths and phase of moon). Click the Twilight button to see twilight times instead
3) Click the up and down hands to advance dates (or press ‘P’ – previous, ‘N’ – next or ‘-’ and ‘+’ on the main keyboard), or select a different date from the date selector
4) The timezone of the location should be detected automatically and displayed at the lower right of the window (if timezone is not shown, you can click override and select manually)
5) The latitude, longitude and elevation above sea level of the current marker position are displayed at the top of the map.
6) If you want to determine the nearest place name of the current map location, click the Search button (the magnifying glass) below the map.
7) If you want to search for a specific named place, click into the location text box (left of the search button) and type the name of the place you want to find. If Google can find it, the map and marker will move to that location.
8) Click Locations (top right) and you can save your current location, or go to or delete one that you saved earlier.
9) Certain labelled terms throughout the program have glossary entries – any label that turns reddish when the mouse is over it will, when clicked, display the corresponding glossary entry. (Note – the glossary is not entirely complete yet.)
10) If the shot you’re looking for isn’t right at the moment of sunrise or moonset, click the Details button (or press ‘D’ on the keyboard) to see detailed information for how the sun and moon are positioned throughout the day and night at your selected location. The central panel allows you to set an arbitrary time of day and see azimuth and elevation angle information numerically. You can also click between the various celestial events for the day using the skip buttons. The graph shows the altitude (in the astronomical sense of angle) for sun and moon throughout the day. Those three lines below the 0° line represent the elevation angle of the sun at the various twilight boundaries: -6°, -12° and -18°.

The idea is that a photographer scouting locations would use Google’s topographic map to see the contours of the location and then, assuming they want to shoot the “golden hour” would want to see where and when the sun/moon will rise/set. The lines on the map show you the direction of sun/moon rise/set.

Keyboard shortcuts

There are a handful of keyboard shortcuts you can use:

E to display the Ephemeris screen
L to go to Locations
P or - for the previous day
N or = for the next day
T to toggle display of twilight information (new in Beta 0.7.4)
D to toggle display of details information for the selected date (new in Beta 0.8.0)
S to swap the positions of the primary and secondary map markers (new in Beta 0.9.5)
C and Shift-C to (i) place the marker at the centre of the current map display or (ii) to pan the map to place the marker at the centre of the display
Shift Hold down this key to extend the azimuth lines displayed on the map through the marker location. This is helpful for aligning particular landmarks, your shooting location and the direction of the sun/moon. This function only works when you are sufficiently zoomed in (otherwise, the extended azimuth line would be inaccurate and misleading)
Ctrl + and Ctrl – to zoom in and out of the map respectively
Shift + to add new location
Left and right cursor keys can be used to move the Details View slider control in one minute increments – click on the slider first

Configuration options

Units of Distance: determines units used for location elevation (metres or feet) and distance to nearest known place (km or miles)
Default location names: select preferred format for displayed location name (as shown during reverse geocoding, i.e. what’s the nearest place to here?) and default name provided when saving a location
Service timeout (seconds): determines the default timeout when querying the GeoNames web services for timezone, elevation and nearest place name. Consider increasing this value if you are seeing “Request timeout – retrying” or “Request timed out” messages. (The specified value is used as is for timezone and altitude queries, but in fact is doubled internally for reverse geocoding as this service can normally take longer to respond, particularly if the nearest known place name is some distance from your current specified location.)
Timezone management: not user editable. Checked if the timezone management database is correctly installed.
Azimuth lines: user selectable colours for the lines shown on the map indicating direction of sunrise/sunset/moonrise/moonset. The same colours are used in the Details display.

Advanced usage

A couple of advanced features, new in Beta 0.9.5:

When will the sun appear from behind that mountain?

Often, the sun or moon is not visible at the moment of rising or setting, due to an obstruction between the observer and the horizon. You really need to know the angle from the observer to the obstruction. In Beta 0.9.5 or later, click Details. Note the Geodetics panel located at the bottom of the Details view. Additionally, an additional map marker will appear in grey to the east of the current map location. Try dragging that marker and positioning it on a landmark near your primary location.

You will see that the data in the geodetics panel updates to show the altitude (in the astronomical sense of altitude angle) from the primary to the secondary location. Using the slider in the central panel, you can ‘pan’ the sun or moon around to see what altitude it will be at at the time it passes through the same azimuth as the obstacle where the secondary marker is located. When a positive apparent altitude angle is shown in the geodetics panel, a line is also added to the details graph above representing that altitude, making it easy to see where to set the slider for the moment the sun or moon matches that altitude (although there’s no guarantee the azimuth will match the bearing at that same time).

In addition, you can determine an accurate distance and bearing between the two map marker locations and also the difference in elevation above sea level.

Can’t you see farther from a mountain-top?

Yes. Because you can see farther, you’ll see the sun rise in the east sooner too. This is due to the fact that you are elevated above the horizon. The height above the horizon determines the “dip of the horizon”. Knowing the dip of the horizon, we can adjust the rise and set times of the sun and moon accordingly (rise gets earlier with height, set gets later).

In Beta 0.9.5 (or later), the program will factor all this in for you. There are two ways to use this (i) manual and (ii) automatic. In manual mode, you can type a number into the text box below the map at the left side: this should be the elevation above sea level at the horizon. For example, if you are standing on top of Longs Peak, Colorado looking east, you can see from a topographical map (or from first-hand knowledge) that the horizon lies many miles away where the land lies no more than 5,000 ft above sea level. In this case you enter ‘5000’.

The program knows (in general) the elevation above sea level of your primary location. Taking the difference, the dip of the horizon can be calculated and the rise and set times adjusted accordingly. Press the clear button to the right of the field to clear the values (in which case the times return to their default, assuming no dip of the horizon).

In automatic mode, you can lock the elevation at the horizon to the secondary marker location. This option (the pin icon at the left of the field) is only available in Details mode and only enabled once a secondary location has been specified by moving the marker. Once locked, any change to either primary or secondary location will result in the dip of the horizon being recalculated and rise/set times adjusted.

How do I know where the horizon is?

If you are planning a trip to an unfamiliar location, you may be wondering how to determine the elevation at the horizon, or even where the horizon lies. While in theory, this could be calculated by the computer, in practice, there are too many variables. Which direction do you care about (e.g. rise or set)? How does the terrain vary in elevation between your location and the direction of horizon?

Instead of trying to second guess this, the program allows you to specify the elevation at the horizon. In automatic mode, this is taken from the secondary map marker location, as described above. Once specified, it is possible to calculate an estimated distance to the horizon. TPE shows this distance using a grey-edged circle overlaid on the map. This is drawn once the elevation at the horizon is specified and the elevation of the primary location is known.

In automatic mode, if you see the circle fall well inside the location of the secondary marker, then it’s likely you cannot in fact see as far as the secondary marker from the primary location in that particular direction. Conversely, if the circle falls well beyond the secondary marker, consider moving the marker outward in the direction you care about (e.g. the direction of sunrise) and watch the circle adjust. Depending on how varied the elevation of the terrain is, you may find yourself ‘chasing the circle’ as it appears to dodge your secondary marker. However, try it a few times and you’ll get the hang of it. Just remember: the higher the observer above the horizon, the farther away the horizon is.

Finally, you can use automatic mode temporarily to determine elevation above the horizon, then switch it off again in order to use the secondary marker to check angles to any obstacles in your shot, as described above.

If in doubt…

If you’re uncertain about how best to use the height above the horizon features, then don’t. Just plan to arrive a little earlier for sun-rise if you’re in the mountains and to stay a little later for sunset. That’s good advice no matter how well-planned your shoot is.

However, if your shot requires critical alignment of the sun or moon at the moment of rise or set, then you might want to invest some time to investigate the possible effects of height above the horizon. But remember, actual visibility to the horizon is governed by clarity of the air, moisture content, and temperature gradients which affect the degree of refraction. None of these can be predicted for any given day with any great degree of certainty.

Program expiry

Release 1.1.0 has no expiry date. Earlier beta version had expiry dates built-in, most recently 1.0 RC1 which expired on December 31 2009.

Version history

This content has moved to http://photoephemeris.com/tpe-desktop-release-notes.

Some notes on how it works

TPE is fairly simple in concept: 1) display a Google Map 2) choose a date 3) calculate and display a bunch of astronomical data.

The tricky part comes from the connection between 1 and 2. Most similar programs and web-sites have you select from a pre-defined list of locations, where, presumably, things such as the relevant time zone are already saved.

Latitude and Longitude don’t give you timezone so easily. Rather than try to write code to work that out myself (have you seen how variable the actual timezone boundaries are close up?), I’m using GeoNames web services. This is how TPE determines relevant timezone for the chosen map location, as well as elevation above sea level.

Geocoding means “find this place name on the map” – Google performs this service. Reverse geocoding means “find the best place name corresponding to this latitude and longitude” – GeoNames does this. The search button below the map does the former if you specify a place name (click in the box and type) and does the latter if you don’t.

Automatic Daylight Savings Time detection is available as of Beta 0.7.5. This is another snake pit for the programmer. Although your computer has all this information already (it probably updated itself quite happily this morning, if you’re in the US), I can’t see any way to exploit that knowledge within my program – I’d have to change the timezone of your computer, plus the system date.

Therefore, I’ve implemented the Olson Timezone Database to allow DST settings to be looked up based on the timezone you’ve navigated to and the date you select. One nice side effect: historical dates will work too – so if you’re looking for the time of that full moon in Sri Lanka before the change to Indian Standard Time in 1996, TPE will report it correctly. (However, I need to write up some more notes on validity of date ranges in the program. There are many factors to consider.)

Accuracy

I’ve done a reasonable amount of testing of the calculated results against other programs and sites and in general, TPE agrees to within +/- 1 minute on most measurements, and is very close on calculated azimuths (that’s not sounding terribly scientific, is it? I’ll try to improve the precision of my language here…)

The solar coordinate calculations used in the program are based on an abbreviated version of the VSOP87 algorithm presented in the Meeus book (see About within the program).

Calculated azimuths show map bearing, not compass (i.e. are not corrected for magnetic declination).

Times of sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset may optionally be corrected for observer altitude above the horizon using the secondary marker (see Advanced Usage above). Elevation is obtained using the GeoNames Shuttle Radar Topography Mission web service (detail here). According to GeoNames:

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) elevation data. SRTM consisted of a specially modified radar system that flew onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour during an 11-day mission in February of 2000. The dataset covers land areas between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south. This web service is using SRTM3 data with data points located every 3-arc-second (approximately 90 meters) on a latitude/longitude grid.

Documentation from NASA, including an accuracy is available here

Note that times of rising and setting are affected by many factors which cannot be calculated in advance. These include barometric pressure and temperature. As such, it is not meaningful to quote rising and setting times more than to the nearest minute.

Known issues

At certain latitudes and certain times of year, there may be more than one sunrise or sunset within a 24 hour period, e.g. Reykjavik in late June. TPE will only indicate one of them.

Feedback

Please e-mail support@photoephemeris.com with your comments and feedback.

[Originally posted Mar 10 2009]

Posted in TPE

Stephen · Sunday, October 11, 2009, 23:20 · Permalink

140 comments on this post

Looks good. I’m still diving in to see the changes, but at first glance the legend link should be more obvious or appear as you mouse over the lines on the map. I only saw it because I was looking for it to give feedback. I guess in general the background image is nice, but it does muddy the water with so much information displayed. Perhaps it should have a lower opacity. More later as I dive into the actual application.

Jim Goldstein · Apr 5, 12:17 AM · #

Thanks Jim. 0.7.6 increases the transparency on the background image and adds an icon to the Legend button (hopefully doesn’t need to be too in your face, as once you’ve understood it, you probably don’t need it again). Unfortunately, Google Maps API doesn’t provide an easy way to label or tooltip the lines that are added to the map…

There are a few other tweaks noted in the Version History above.

Stephen · Apr 5, 08:43 PM · #

Just want to say this is brilliant. Have been using a combination of data sources and tools to plan out what you provide in a easy to use, intuitive and above all supremely useful piece of (free!?) software. Exceptional. This is one of those things that actually makes a difference to one’s photography hobby. Many many thanks!

Mark · Apr 16, 07:55 AM · #

Thanks Mark – appreciate you stopping by to comment. Point me in the direction of any “TPE-enabled” shots you get!

Stephen · Apr 16, 10:21 PM · #

Just installed it. Thanks a bunch for creating this!!

Joshua · Apr 17, 12:34 AM · #

Just want to thank you for this software. This makes my life much easier. As a landscape photographer I have looked for similar software everywhere in the past. I found your software here NPN
Come and join NPN forum. Your expertise and images will add so much to that forum, regards, Rajeev.

Rajeev Thomas · Apr 18, 07:30 PM · #

Hi Rajeev – thanks for stopping by and for your kind invite to join the NPN forum, which I certainly will do! Hope you find TPE useful – I’d value your feedback on how it can evolve.

(For anyone who’s wondering, I have to work out why comments to posts in the Tools section don’t format correctly – they shouldn’t look this random…)

Stephen · Apr 19, 12:13 AM · #

A must have tool! Your hard work is most appreciated! The only feature that is missing that I would love is a weather forecast. This tool will be incredibly valuable to my research process.

Andrew Livingston · May 18, 05:56 PM · #

Stephen,

I just discovered this great tool from a post on NaturePhotographers.Net. It will definitely come in handy for me, not just for my photography but for my moonsighting efforts for the whole of the North American Muslim Commmuity. I will certainly be passing on this program information to my moonsighting network of folks across the country.

I do have a couple of questions. The sun and moon azimuth lines tend to get shorter during the midday hours. Does that shortening indicate anything physically? Second, is it possible based on actual location to determine when the sun or moon will drop below the actual physical horizon e.g. behind a mountain, rahter than just the theoretical horizon?

One last comment is it would be nice if we could link a location weather forecast as well.

Thanks for a great tool.

Youssef Ismail · May 18, 09:34 PM · #

Andrew, Youssef – thanks for stopping by!

Andrew – weather forecast links are on the cards for a future release (my only conundrum is how to source the appropriate site for a global user base – I imagine I’ll make it user specifiable in some way on a per country basis).

Youssef – well spotted, the lines do get shorter (in the “Details” view only). The intention is to give some visual indication on the map of the altitude of the object in the sky – the higher in the sky the object is, the shorter the line. Any object at the true zenith (90) would be shown as a point rather than a line. The thinking is that when an object is particularly high in the sky, the azimuth becomes less practically useful to the photographer (harder to orient yourself against). The length of the line is the length at rise/set time (set to be roughly to the bounds of the visible map – but this is approximate) multiplied by the cosine of the altitude angle. However, let me know how useful you find this. I could make it part of the configuration options to allow it to be enabled/disabled.

Regarding your second question – again, this is on the roadmap. My intention is to allow the user to specify on the map the position either of the visible horizon (if the observer location is above the horizon, then the rise time will be earlier due to dip of the horizon), or an object that might obstruct the view (in which case you need to find the apparent altitude of the obstruction and find the time at which the object will rise above/set below that altitude). The nice thing is that with Google Maps and GeoNames, I can determine the altitude of any location for most of the globe and use that compute the answer to the drop-behind-a-mountain scenario, etc.

I’ll let you know when I get these features included.

Stephen

Stephen · May 18, 10:00 PM · #

this version, upon launch, raises a message box (Adobe Apollo this application requires a version of AIR which is no longer supported. Please contact the application author for an updated version.)

richard L. · May 19, 10:18 AM · #

Did you have an earlier version of AIR installed? Apollo was the code name for the prerelease version. Maybe try uninstalling AIR and reinstalling from the latest download on the Adobe site (http://get.adobe.com/air/?promoid=BUIGQ).

I haven’t had any reports of this problem from other users and haven’t encountered it on my test systems (3 PCs and 3 Macs).

Stephen · May 19, 08:51 PM · #

I can across this from naturephotographers.net too. Would it be possible to make the map larger on larger monitors?
Thanks for the great app!

Randall Quon · May 25, 10:42 PM · #

Hi Randall – yes, it is possible. You aren’t the first to ask! I expect to be posting a new update in the next couple of days, and after that’s done, making the window sizable is next on my to do list.

Stephen · May 25, 11:51 PM · #

GREAT! I’m very excited about the Ephemeris. I deal a lot with UTM coordinates. Any way to work this in??

Adam Angel · Jun 2, 10:35 PM · #

Hi Stephen,
Sorry !
I have downloaded the latest version and it all-ready does what I was asking for.
One other suggestion…being able to set the time slider and then click through other days at that set time is useful, but would it also be possible to choose to lock altitude and/or azimuth at a particular value, and then look through other days using those values instead ?
ie. finding the times on different days, when the sun/moon is in a particular position, rather than finding out the sun/moons different positions on different days at a particular time.
I think position should take preference over time.
Thanks again for your software, looking for this sort of information on the net has become a hobby of mine for 4 or 5 years at least, I believe I have found just about all the other many options, TPE is by far the best, it does the job superbly well, congratulations !

ross hale · Jun 5, 04:37 PM · #

Hi Ross – thanks for your kind words. Those are great suggestions which I’ve added to my ever-lengthening to-do list!

Stephen · Jun 6, 01:02 PM · #

This is only to say thanks for the develop of the software. It´s very useful for me!

J. ROLDAN · Jun 11, 01:10 PM · #

Thanks for a great tool, much easier than copying googlemaps into PS and measuring the azimuth. The one thing I miss is the altitude of the bodies, since here in the far North the sun and moon travel along the horizon at an angle, not perpendicular as near the equator. So it is interesting to know when the altitude is low, say 2-3 degrees. But I see you have this type of functionality on your roadmap. Keep up the good work!

Michael Gehrisch · Jun 12, 10:35 AM · #

This looks like a very useful tool – it’s good to be able to plan in advance instead of waiting until I get to a location and then use a sunrise compass on site. I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this, and I didn’t see it on your “known issues” list, but I wasn’t able to install it on a 64-bit Vista Ultimate system. Worked OK on 32-bit.

Alan Scullard · Jun 12, 02:06 PM · #

Great tool!

Just to note, the software works fine on my 64-bit system with Vista Ultimate

Alex Wise · Jun 14, 07:26 AM · #

Excellent application – will be extremely useful when planning sunrise and sunset photo shoots!
(Thanks to Alex Wise for drawing my attention to it.)

One minor comment – the date (displayed at the bottom of the “Ephemeris” table) is always in US format (ie, mm/dd/yyyy). However, we’re not all in the US (I’m in Australia), and I’d prefer the format to either be user-configurable, or detect the regional settings from the operating system.

Martin · Jun 14, 08:45 AM · #

Thanks to all for the comments.

@Michael: you can see the altitude of the bodies by clicking the ‘Details’ button – you can ‘scrub’ through the selected 24 hour period and get altitude and azimuth for an arbitrary time. Alternatively, jump from event to event (e.g. from Civil Twilight to Sunrise) using the buttons on the Details form.

@Alan: I haven’t tested that OS, however, I’d suggest trying one of the other Adobe AIR apps over on the Adobe site and see if you can that to run first. It may not be an issue specific to TPE.

@Alex: thanks for stopping by and thanks for the write-up on your site!

@Martin: sorry about the date format! I’m normally sensitive to that sort of thing myself being English. I’ll try to get that fixed in the next version!

stephen · Jun 14, 06:23 PM · #

Works a treat on my work pc (Dell Optiplex 745) Win XP Pro – haven’t had an ‘air’ issue as I installed “tweetdeck” yesterday inclusive of the latest build of air … will try on asst’d laptops etc at home over the next few days.

This is the holy grail of sunrise/set programs as I’m very much a spur of the moment shooter dependent upon the weather etc … I can’t thankyou enough for the effort in making this available !!

Steev S

Steev Selby · Jun 15, 06:08 PM · #

@Steev: I think the holy grail would be this app, but with Google StreetView too integrated into it too ;-)
StreetView would provide some interesting possibilities, but I think it would be rather complex (if at all possible) to actually do it.

Martin · Jun 16, 04:02 AM · #

@Steev – “the holy grail of sunrise/set programs” – love it! Can I quote you?! Thanks for the offer to test on some other configurations – appreciate it.

@Martin – this would be either impossible or easy – it’s all a question of whether Google add that to the Google Maps for Flash API. I can see it would be useful for urban shooters, but maybe not so much use for the landscape photographer (the street-avoiding type…)

Stephen · Jun 16, 08:22 AM · #

Stephen

Just downloaded the latest version, the ability to stretch the map over the whole screen is just brilliant (as are the excellent drawings by your wife!). Seriously, this program just keeps getting better and better. I really appreciate the extension of the lines by holding the shift key as well.

Here’s a photo that I’ve been wanting to take for ages, TPE gave me the info I needed and thankfully the weather was cooperative:

Many thanks, I’m telling everyone I know about TPE, brilliant!!!!!

Mark

Mark · Jun 18, 03:18 AM · #

Hi, thank you for your usefull aplication!
We will use in Mallorca (Spain), I just planned a trip for next 5th july.
One question: Do you know some address or program to download to convert decimal dregrees in degrees, minuts and seconds?
Maybe if you want to add in your next beta…

Biel · Jun 22, 10:54 AM · #

Sorry, I only wanted to say in previous comment if were possible a more accurately position from Sun and Moon. Is the same if it is in minuts and seconds or decimal degrees with two decimals. For Landscapes with telephotos were easier to decide exactly the point to make the Picture.
I’m sorry for my English, I dont know if you really understand wath I suggest.

Biel · Jun 24, 08:13 AM · #

Hi Biel: I understand what you’re asking for, but I fear quoting the sun and moon azimuth to two decimal places may overstate the accuracy of the underlying algorithms. I’ll double check to see if quoting bearings to that precision is reasonable, and if so, look to add into an upcoming version.

Hope your July 5th trip is a good one!

Stephen · Jun 24, 08:36 PM · #

@Paul (#27): thanks for stopping by and thanks for sharing your photo! I tried e-mailing you in reply, but the message has bounced. Appreciate the feedback!

Stephen · Jun 24, 08:38 PM · #

Absolutly the best program I have seen in a good length of time, and so useful already.

I would like to be able to see the 90 degree (i.e. the position) of the sun and moon plotted on the map if it is zoomed out far enough so you could trace the location of those bodies as the time is varied in the details.

Another possiable addition which may be of more use to other people; I think you could add some sort of tide graph to the moon/sun details graphs, I beleive it is basically the sum of the two sun/moon traces adjusted for the absolute values. Knowing the water’s high/low swing for a date and the approximate level at a particular time would help planning shoots on the coast and by tideal rivers. Obviously this may be too much of a simplification as there may be alot more to this, but it would be nice.

Simon Massey · Jun 29, 09:45 AM · #

Thank you sir! I’ve been using the Air Force astronomical data for years while having to estimate north-south drift of the sun and moon to get the shots I’ve always wanted. Your software is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Now, just get it to work on the Iphone and you’ll make many a photographer happy (more than you already have).

Keep up the great work. Thanks again!

John Rader · Jun 30, 05:34 AM · #

@Simon: thanks for kind words! I’m not sure I’m quite following your first suggestion – the lines on the map currently show azimith (bearing) of the sun/moon and the length of the line varies to give an indication of altitude (elevation angle) – the shorter the line, the higher in the sky the body is. You can adjust for any time of day using the slider in the details view. However, I have a feeling that’s not what you meant, so do let me know.

Regarding tides, I fear it’s a bit more complicated than you describe, from what I can recall of my Open University Oceanography course. However, i agree it would be a great addition, so I’ll see what I can dig up in terms of ways to implement this.

@John: thanks! An iPhone version is in its infancy right now. It’ll be a good while before I have anything to show, but it is in hand!

Stephen · Jun 30, 11:51 PM · #

I’m eager to explore this application, but the download version seems to be a truncated piece of the fill file—AIR claims it’s “been damaged”. Any thoughts?

Ted Jerome · Jul 9, 05:37 PM · #

Great application. I would definitely buy it for a couple of bucks if it is an iPhone application. hope to see it in the appstore soon.

Ayman Aljammaz · Jul 14, 12:35 AM · #

Excellent product! I have recommended it to many. You may want to update the Terms of Use link on this page, that is important stuff!

Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston · Jul 18, 12:12 AM · #

@Ted – glad we were able to get your issue sorted out. Didn’t get any other reports of problems…

@Ayman – iPhone version in development (it’s going to be a while though…)

@Derrald – thanks for the write-up on your site, and thanks for the heads up on the broken link! Fixed now.

Stephen · Jul 18, 11:12 AM · #

I have been using this coupled with google earth for ‘interesting’ locations in regards to sunrise and it’s been very faithful to it’s predicted locations every time so far …
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eonns/3847113214/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eonns/3779571630/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eonns/3807529526/sizes/l/

Steve Selby · Aug 23, 07:30 AM · #

Wow, this is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks so much for creating this!

Gary · Aug 24, 10:22 AM · #

What an excellent programme. It’s just the ticket.
A tutorial that could be down-loaded (pdf format ?)and printed off would be icing on the cake.

Ben · Aug 25, 04:16 AM · #

Hi, i’m having trouble installing the program, when installation start the system crush and pc reset itself…

Marco · Sep 7, 03:14 PM · #

@Steve – nice shots! Glad everything is lining up for you!

@ Gary – thanks!

@Ben – you could print the existing tutorials to PDF for now, but I’ll look to create a PDF of the whole series too.

@ Marco – try going to http://adobe.com/air and make sure you can successfully install another AIR app – if you can’t, it’s unlikely the problem is with TPE.

Stephen · Sep 7, 04:44 PM · #

“”@ Marco – try going to http://adobe.com/air and make sure you can successfully install another AIR app – if you can’t, it’s unlikely the problem is with TPE.”“

The crush occur even when installing other AIR application, do someone know what might cause it? (Blue screen error).

Marco · Sep 8, 04:09 PM · #

Analyzed the crash, this is what i’ve got:

On Tue 08/09/2009 21.01.39 your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: windrvnt.sys
Bugcheck code: 0×1000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBAC11703, 0xB6225C70, 0×0)
Error: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\windrvnt.sys

The program I used is “WhoCrashed”

Marco · Sep 8, 04:37 PM · #

Hi Marco – I’d suggest Googling for “Adobe AIR install blue screen” and seeing what you can find. I did find this particular thread which sounds similar to the problems you describe: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/415553

Hope you’re able to resolve the issue – sorry I can’t be more specific, but I think this is conflict between your system and Adobe AIR, rather than a problem with TPE that I can debug myself.

Stephen · Sep 8, 10:57 PM · #

Ok, i will do so, thank you anyway!

Marco · Sep 9, 05:49 AM · #

Great app… thanks so much. My use of this tool is primarily in determining WHEN I can align objects with the rising or setting moon or sun. For my purposes this tool could go from great to fantastic with a few changes/improvements.
1. Allow me to specify the height (above ground, or above sea-level) of the item at the gray marker (or the primary location – see below).
2. Show the approximate location where the shadow of said object would intersect the terrain – this tends to coordinate with your comments earlier about the length of the rise/set lines. I would suggest doing so with “backward” extensions of the rise/set lines.
3. Provide an option to extend one of the lines backward (so that I can set the primary location on the thing I’m trying to align with the sun or moon and then determine approximately where to stand).
4. OR draw the lines WHILE moving the Primary marker. That way I can move them until they align with the target object. You’d only need do this when zoomed way in.

Here is a scenario, by way of example:
I want to align the rising moon with the top of the Transamerica Building in San Francisco. I need both the azimuth and the altitude of the moon to be “right” from my location to get this shot (and an anti-fog machine – but that is out of the scope of your tool).
Ideally I’d drop the primary marker on the Transamerica building. Set the height above ground level for this location (853 feet) and move through time with the slider until the “backward projection” of the moonrise line aligns with a potential location – i.e. not in the SF Bay. I can then drop the gray marker there. The Geodetics calculations will confirm that the altitude and azimuth are correct (or require some nudging).

If you really want to go “over the top” the program could sample the elevation of locations along the line of sight from the gray marker, through the primary marker and beyond to determine if there are obstructions. (I have a javascript tool that does this with Google Maps API). Obviously buildings and trees and things “close” to ground level may interfere with the line of sight… but that’s where an actual pre-trip to the shooting location would come in handy!

Steven the Amusing · Sep 9, 05:33 PM · #

I have downloaded TPE and AIR but when I run TPE I get a windows error:

“Faulting application tpe.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module ole32.dll, version 5.1.2600.3311, fault address 0×0004ddae.”

This comes up after the TPE screen comes up. No map is drawn but I see a red balloon with 4 coloured lines .
Other AIR apps work OK. Running XP SP3 and loaded AIr first then TPE

Mike · Sep 12, 04:14 PM · #

@Steven – had to read your comment a couple of times, but I think I get it now. I think there are probably a few generic functions I could add per your suggestion such as the ability to override the automatic altitude, plus shadow length calculations. I’ll add this to the (growing) to do list!

@ Mike – sorry to hear you’re having a problem. I’ve e-mailed you directly regarding this.

Stephen · Sep 12, 04:43 PM · #

Stephen.. thanks for reading my comments, sorry if they were a little rough. Rereading it seems that I instead of saying “backward projection”, I could simply have said “shadow location”. And the shadow in question would either be the shadow cast by the sun, or the shadow cast by the moon. Perhaps one more way to slice it: if the “moon location line” pointed 180 degrees in the opposite direction AND extended to approximately where the target’s shadow would fall it would be great.

Again, by way of example: the Pigeon Point Lighthouse on the Pacific Coast is 44 feet above sea level and the lighthouse is 115 tall. When the moon is 4 degrees above the horizon, the moon shadow of the lighthouse will extend 1,655 feet away assuming the terrain is flat. [See a similar calculation below for the formula I used]. The display of a “backward projection” that extends 1,655 from the target in the opposite direction from the moon azimuth line would pretty much do all the work for me. Of course I will then need to adjust my positioning if the viewing location is not at the same elevation as the base of the target.

One possible implementation of this would be to introduce an optional “shadow location” marker that moves around the target location as the time slider is changed.

PS… It would be nice to be able to move the time slider in 1 minute increments… it’s a little hard to do with a mouse. I notice that the “back arrow” key on my keyboard moves the clock backward by what appear to be 1/3 of a minute increments (GREAT!), but the forward arrow doesn’t seem to move forward in time.

As is this is great work which I’d gladly pay for!

Another interesting reference point: If I want a “large sun” or “large moon” effect, I need to move far enough away from the lighthouse so that the apparent angular size of the lighthouse is nearly the same as the moon (which is 0.5 degrees). The formula – without adjusting for earth curvature or atmosphere – is: DISTANCE = 115 / tan(0.5 degrees) = 13,177 feet (2.5 miles).

Steven · Sep 16, 08:42 PM · #

Steven,
I downloaded Adobe Air and your program but when it tries to start I get the following error message:
Initialization failed: please check the API key,
swf location, version and network availability
Can you help I would like to try the program.
Thanks

Bruce · Sep 17, 10:51 PM · #

@Steven – all makes sense. I agree about the time slider, for sure. I hadn’t noticed that the keyboard allowed this in one direction but not the other. I’ll investigate further.

@Bruce – by far the most likely explanation for this is that the program can’t contact Google over your internet connection at the point when the program starts up. Are you able to reproduce this problem reliably? Is your internet connection always-on/broadband? The program requires an internet connection in order to display the Google Map when it starts up. Let me know how you get on.

Stephen · Sep 18, 12:37 AM · #

This is a great tool, just what I’d been looking for.

I’d like to make a couple of suggestions for your growing roadmap/wish list (couldn’t see it on the blog, so hopefully not repeating existing requests).

1. I’d like to be able to export saved locations as waypoints for my GPS, in the GPX (GPS exchange format), so I can find those ideal locations when I get to the site.

2. I’d like to be able to set the location and time of day (sunrise/sunset), and the angle of light, then be able to search and identify the time of year when the lighting conditions best fit those requirements.

Finally I’d like to add my desire for the weather forecast functionality that already been requests – something like www.intellicast.com appears to give consistent information globally (and if TPE can forecast the cloud types and prevailing wind direction and strength – even better)

Stephen Wensley · Sep 23, 08:08 PM · #

@Stephen W: many thanks for your suggestions, all make sense.

I’m likely to target KML as the first format for import/export, as that would enable interoperability with Google Earth. I imagine that if you can get your TPE locations as KML, there’ll be plenty other tools to convert that to GPX.

I’ve also deliberately avoided Search as a function to date – there are other programs that do that very well and I’m trying to keep the focus on what I think is TPE’s unique selling point, the azimuth lines overlayed on the topo map. Certainly could do it, but at this point I have to choose where to focus my time.

Weather forecast would be a good addition – I’m still looking for a reliable API-based source and I also need to reverse geocode the current lat/lng into the nearest weather station, which rules out some options I’ve investigated.

Sorry not to sound more positive on your suggestions – I think they’re all good ones, but will likely have to wait a while before I get them done.

@Oleg, @Gard – thanks for stopping by to comment!

stephen · Oct 6, 08:29 PM · #

I also got the error “Initialization failed: please check the API key, swf location, version and network availability” where the map is supposed to be when I start TPE. I can confirm that I have internet connectivity and that I even turn off my firewall so that I am sure the app is not being blocked by the firewall when this error occurs. I googled this error and it seems to relate to a problem with the Google Map API key or SWF location. Any suggestions? Thanks

William · Oct 24, 01:22 AM · #

Hi William,

Well – I can confirm TPE is working fine (I’m running the program right now), so that means (i) the key is still valid and (ii) Google is validating key authorization requests OK, so that most likely points to your particular setup. It’s not the SWF location – that only applies to Flash SWFs embedded in web pages (where it’s required that the hosting domain match the API key domain), whereas TPE is an AIR app.

I recommend trying the RoadFinder sample AIR app located here – it uses Google Maps for Flash too. Could you check if you’re able to run that program successfully?

Let me know how you get on.

Cheers,

Stephen

Stephen · Oct 24, 10:27 AM · #

Hi Stephen, Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. It turns out that I left on a proxy setting that I usually only use at work which causes the map.google site to be not reach-able. I turned off that proxy setting and all is work fine. Thanks again for your help and for an amazing tool.

William · Oct 24, 12:52 PM · #

I’ve been looking for this type of app for months. Very grateful that you figured out how to do it.

I do have a question and I hope I can phrase it properly. Looking at data for tonight in the Washington State area, I note that the moon rise time is 15:19 and the moon set time is 1:06. Does the moon set time equal the next event (i.e. 1:06 on the 28th), or is the moon set on the 27th and thus before the listed moon rise?

Looking at the 25th of October, I note there is no moon set time. I interpret that to mean that the moon set event is preceding the moon rise event, whereas the sun set event always follows the sun rise event. Do I have that correct?

Steve · Oct 26, 09:42 PM · #

Hi Steve – the times are always stated for the selected date in question. Easiest way to see this is to click Details (or press ‘D’). The graph in blue shows the path of the moon above and below the horizon, so you can see when it’s rising or setting through the selected 24 hour period in question.

I’m guessing you’re looking somewhere in the Port Orchard area for October 27th 2009, right? If so, then the sequence is: moon rises at 2:37 pm on Sunday 10/25, sets at midnight that night (i.e. 00:00 on 10/26), rises at 3pm on Monday 10/26, sets at 1:06am during the early hours of Tuesday morning, 10/27 and rises again in the afternoon at 3:19pm.

Regarding your comments on the sun, yes, set normally follows rise within the same 24 hour period, but not always. For example, try Reykjavik, Iceland on June 21st, the summer solstice. The days are extremely long and the set time actually pushes past midnight local time, such that within a single calendar day, sunset actually precedes sunrise.

Hope that helps.

Stephen

Stephen · Oct 26, 10:52 PM · #

Excellent work, Stephen. I’m still figuring out all the details, but this looks like it will be a very useful set of tools. I’ve started a thread on apug.org (the Analogue Photography Users Group) pointing fellow landscapists in this direction—

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum282/67930-predicting-light-photographers-ephemeris-stephen-trainor.html

David A. Goldfarb · Oct 30, 08:10 AM · #

Stephen, just let me say what a great program you have created; it wil be very useful. Just a comment on a few bugs I am finding, mainly in the date/calendar area. When first opened the date show today and the up/down “hands” work fine. If I choose a date in the future, the date is displayed in the calender box, and the ephemeris days display changes, except the one that is highlighted; it stays on what was previously showing, and then the up/down “hands” do not work.
However, great program. Hope you can fix it.
V1.0.0 Australia. UTC +11

Bruce · Nov 1, 03:55 AM · #

Hi Bruce – thanks for the heads up on that one. I suspect this is related to your local time zone. As I’m married to an Australian, I’m duty bound to fix it! I’ll look into it and let you know.

Stephen · Nov 1, 10:31 PM · #

@David – thanks for posting about TPE over on apug.org!

@Bruce – just put out a fix (v1.0.1) for the issue you saw. Thanks again for pointing it out.

Stephen · Nov 3, 12:32 AM · #

Stephen;
Congratulations on creating The Photographers Ephemeris. To help support your efforts I have made a contribution through Paypal.

I had the good fortune to grow up during the air navigation from radio beams to our current satellite navigation starting a naval aviator and finishing as a commercial test pilot. Since retirement digital photography has been my passion. Your program allows me to use navigational tools to plan my photography shoots.
I am sending your site to E.C. Krupp the Griffith Observatory Director as an example of how the various available web programs can provide useful information outside their specific area. If your travels take you to the Los Angeles area I would appreciate having lunch with you.

Walt Smith

Walt Smith · Nov 6, 11:09 PM · #

Hi Walt – many thanks for your kind support, it’s much appreciated. Sounds like you’ve had a fascinating career. I’ll certainly let you know if I’m going to be in the LA area. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any comments on the program.

Thanks again,

Stephen

Stephen · Nov 8, 05:56 PM · #

Absolutely Fantastic!
Invaluable tool!

Eduardo Mueses · Nov 9, 01:25 PM · #

What a fantastic piece of software. The most useful photography tool I’ve yet found. I’ve tried installing it on a Netbook running Linux and it works sort of, but the low resolution of the netbook screens causes problems. It runs great on my Windows laptop though.

A great feature would be to be able to say where the moon or sun would be at a particular time of day or to be able to click on a position for the photo to be taken from and where you’d like the sun/moon to be on a particular day and the software to give you the time it is in that position.

keith · Nov 10, 12:48 PM · #

thanks so much for making this – i only have one issue with the program: i am using a netbook (1024×600). the program runs off the top and bottom of the screen. i have to switch resolution to 800×600 and then back again to gain access to the title bar (top of screen) and the input box for location (bottom of screen). is there a way to get the program to automatically conform to the screen size? thanks!

gary shepard · Nov 12, 07:44 AM · #

@Eduardo – thanks for the write-up on your site!

@Keith – I’m aware of the netbook resolution issue – I need to squeeze another 100 pixels out of the Details view and I think I’ll have it resolved. Regarding your other comment, this is the whole “search” question – I freely admit I’ve avoided tackling that one to date, largely because it’s non-trivial to do well, and also because other programs do it very well (e.g. Heavenly Opportunity). However, perhaps one day…

@Gary – per my note above, yes, it struggles with anything less than 700px height. I think have an approach to solve this now, so look for an update in the next few weeks.

Stephen · Nov 12, 10:49 PM · #

Hi!
I very much appreciate TPE, and I can see how I will benefit enormously from it. Now, I understand you’ve got other things to do..but it really would be fabulous to have it as an iPhone application! Any chance of that happening?

Best regards

Mats Nilson · Dec 3, 07:58 AM · #

Thank you for this extraordinary application! It’s wonderful! You take wonderful photos!

Aristides · Dec 9, 04:47 AM · #

Great program, will make my travel life and site planning much easier. Thanks !

Ted · Dec 9, 12:33 PM · #

Great application Stephen. Any plans to port it to Android so it runs on the Motorola Droid phones? (I know, I don’t ask for much. ;-) )

Rob C · Dec 12, 06:19 PM · #

@Mats: iPhone – YES. Am writing this in Starbucks where I’m stting working on it right now. Probably 2-3 months away from release.

@Aristides, @Ted – thanks!

@Rob – you’re the first to ask. I reckon I have around 6 months of work on the iPhone and desktop versions left before I’d get to it, but certainly open to exploring the option. However, the thought of porting all that maths code yet again is not a happy one!

Stephen · Dec 13, 11:54 AM · #

Thanks, Stephen, this is great! I always wanted a tool like this.

Clemens · Dec 17, 08:55 AM · #

Very interesting and useful. I have a question about moon rise for an ocean horizon. Is the time indicated the leading edge of the moon over the horizon, or the center mass. The moon is about 0.5 degrees, so when the moon is just barely still touching the water line is what apparent elevation in the program? 0.5 degrees? Or 0.25, indicating the program measures from the center. It moves quick when you’re trying to catch it at the horizon, so a minute makes a lot of difference in the shot. Michael

michael batchelor · Dec 17, 10:44 PM · #

@Clemens – thanks – hope you enjoy using it!

@Michael – the rise times are calculated for the moment the upper limb of the body (sun or moon) appears above the horizon. The altitude displayed in the Details view is for the centre of the body, corrected for atmospheric refraction. When you click through to moonrise in Details, you’ll see that the indicated altiitude of the moon is around -0.2 degrees. Bear in mind that the semidiameter of the moon varies over time, and the effects of refraction and actual atmospheric conditions can make giving a rise time to any precision of less than a minute somewhat meaningless. (It becomes more reasonable to state a higher degree of precision as the body altitude increases and the effects of atmospheric refraction diminish.) Hope that helps!

Stephen · Dec 17, 11:24 PM · #

After reading the comments policy i know this may be deleted it is okay to do should you feel that that would be correct. i just wanted to let you and the users know when naming locations automatically please try to take into account the geopolitical situations and make an effort to consider the feelings of the people that live in these areas. I know that this may be difficult but it would make things easier for those of us that live or work in contentious areas. Certain governments would take offense for example the UK has territories that other countries consider theirs. sometimes in some countries having the labels not correct according to the government could get someone arrested.

Daniel Pozner · Dec 22, 07:49 AM · #

Daniel – were there any specific places that you believe are incorrectly named? If so, I can report inaccuracies to Google and/or Geonames whose databases are used by TPE.

Stephen · Dec 22, 08:44 AM · #

Wonderful program…I use it regularly. Thank you very much! Please add me to the list of people (whose comments I read above) who’d appreciate an iPhone version… ;-)

Charlie Morey · Dec 31, 05:33 PM · #

I’ve been using TPE for a while now, and increasing using it for planning where I shoot from a sporting events, as the know the route the competitors will take and TPE allows me to choose the best positions at different times of day.

One feature I would love to see added, but recognise might deviate from the aims of the tool, would be an overlay of the depth of field onto the map. That kind of feature would allow me to choose which lens I take with me and refine my shooting positions even further.

Ideally the tool would allow selection of the shooting position and focal point, and calculate the area of acceptable focus before and after that point using aperture, focal length and camera details entered by the user. Perhaps by referencing the calculations on a tool like: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Stephen Wensley · Jan 9, 12:53 PM · #

@charlie – iPhone version on the way. There’s a survey for beta participants at the top of the page if you’re interested!

@stephen – I think I know what you mean, but I would think this information would only be useful or even visible when zoomed in very close indeed on the map. With the terrain view that I normally use, Google typically doesn’t even have imagery available at the sort of zoome levels where things like hyperfocal distance could be distinguished from the shooting location. Or am I missing something? It’s certainly technically possible to do…

Stephen · Jan 18, 10:52 PM · #

Another vote for making it an app for the Motorola Droid.

Greg Vaughn · Jan 22, 04:43 PM · #

Fantastic program! Do you have any plans to port it on Android? Willing to pay for such great program!

Sergey Louks · Feb 2, 06:16 AM · #

Absolutely great program.
One question I have: Where on the harddisk the locations are stored? I.e. if I usually use TPE at home on my destop where I have stored all of my locations, is there a file or something else I can copy onto a laptop to have my stored locations also available there? Thanks very much.

Claude · Feb 12, 12:50 PM · #

@Greg, @Sergey: if Android keeps going the way it is, then likely, in time, yes I’ll look at doing a port. Still finishing up the iPhone version right now though…

@Claude: in the current version they’re buried in Flash SharedObject which appears to be encrypted. Not sure if that’s portable between machines – I haven’t tried it, so proceed with care if you want to give it a go. I’m going to write the locations out to a XML/KML file in a future update to solve the portability problem that you raise.

Stephen · Feb 14, 10:27 PM · #

Thanks very much for your quick reply, Stephen. I think you have done a really great job with this program. I had a look at the FlashSharedObject thing and – as I’m not all all familiar with this – think it might be a bit too risky for me to try it. So I’ll just wait for your future update. Thanks very much again.

Claude · Feb 15, 03:02 AM · #

I’ve just discovered your program. I’m very impressed about how you have solved the problems I’ve given up on with my Javascript based ephemeris, a user friendly geographical interface to location and timezone is not easy but you have found a way of merging all sorts of internet info to solve it. A great tool that I’ll make a link to from my pages

http://www.aphayes.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ephemeris/index.html
http://www.aphayes.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/sun_moon.html

Only minor question, as a landscape photographer in the English Lake District I’d prefer to know the moon phase during daylight hours, it’s an interesting challenge to photograph. If my sums are right you do the phase at midnight but I do the phase at noon, which is not very sensible for an astronomer so a night owl, perhaps your web page should say when the phase is calculated.

Great tool though!

Peter Hayes · Feb 16, 12:49 PM · #

Hi Peter – I’m impressed you worked out when I was calculating moon phase! Yes, it defaults to midnight. I agree that mid-day might make more sense. Additionally, it would be good to add the calculation into the details view so you could get the answer to the nearest minute.

Appreciate the link back from your site!

Stephen · Feb 16, 11:20 PM · #

Steven, first off let me just say, WOW! Awesome program. I had an idea for a tool similar to this for my own use. When shooting local television commercials it’s great to know when the best time to shoot the exterior of the building. Many times, I’d get there when the sun was behind the building and the front in complete shade, bad! Your program goes so far beyond what I could have imagined mine would do. Thanks for sharing, great work!
Dave.

David Taylor · Feb 17, 11:11 AM · #

Dear Stephen, Over the years I have planned my own moon shots with map, compass and astronomical data from US Naval Observatory. A friend turned me on to the fabulous software you have created, and after thoroughly practicing all of it’s aspects the last couple of nights, I am awestruck and smiling ear to ear. Your program has made the planning for landscape lighting and astronomical events a joy! I can’t thank you enough. So, I will make a donation and urge others to also do so. You should be rewarded richly for your generous and valuable work!

Marty Knapp · Feb 21, 12:29 AM · #

Stephen, I find your application extremely useful, particularly for forecasting and tracking the moon’s location, timing and path. Wonderful work.

Todd · Feb 22, 08:58 PM · #

Just d/l’ed version 1.04 and Norton wouldn’t let me install it, but kept deleting tpe.exe saying it was a threat. i know you guys are trustworthy so I deactivated Norton and the installation went fine. I’m on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine. Just a heads up. Great program.

Larry Fletcher · Feb 27, 08:56 PM · #

Sorry to say Norton keeps deleting tpe.exe, thinking it’s the TP virus I guess. Can I work around the tpe.exe naming?
Thanks,
Larry

Larry Fletcher · Feb 28, 08:45 PM · #

I believe you can try adding an exception to Norton so that it knows not to delete the file. I’ll see if there’s a way to report false positives to Norton. I’m not sure what renaming would do. You could certainly try it.

Stephen · Feb 28, 08:54 PM · #

I saw this in Amateur Photographer. This rocks! Many thanks.

alan wild · Mar 5, 09:17 AM · #

Stephen, what a great program – I’ve said it in another comment but no harm in repeating it or the hope that we’ll see a win mobile port to allow us to use this in the field.

One question: you allow manual setting of time zone but I note that UTC-1 and UTC-2 are missing from the drop down. Was this intentional?

louis · Mar 8, 10:22 AM · #

I’ve moved into a 10th floor flat and wanted to know when the sun would disappear & reappear from behind the building next door. Thanks to this brilliant app, I’m eagerly awaiting next Sunday :-) Many, many thanks.

Rob · Mar 8, 12:39 PM · #

100

@alan – thanks! just saw the article myself…

@louis – have to say, I’d be looking for some signs of life in Win Mobile market share before considering a port to that platform. Maybe Winmo 7 will actually revive its fortunes.

Good catch on the timezone override – if there ever was any logic to that omission, I’ve long forgotten what it was. I’ll add them to the next update!

@Rob – hope next Sunday brings sunny weather!

Stephen · Mar 8, 07:30 PM · #

101

Thanks for this wonderful piece of kit … living in Scotland, this allows me to plan my trips to new locations without wasting time on guess work… All we need now, (being in Scotland) is one to predict cloud cover… lol

David · Mar 15, 02:34 AM · #

102

One of the best photography tools for the laptop I have ever found. Previously, I had to visit several sites to get the info I need for the golden hours as well as information for shooting star trails and the night sky. I plan to feature your tool on the Mar. 24 article in www.ChobeSafari.com

Buddy Eleazer · Mar 16, 08:24 AM · #

103

Brilliant tool here!
I have been using this extensively on my last trip and results have been great.
thank you for creating this.

Wim Reyns · Mar 23, 07:22 AM · #

104

Boundary issue… I was looking up the Ephemeris for my late April trip to Greenland. Apparently at that latitude the algorithm isn’t working. My attempted location is Qaanaaq at 77.4837N, 69.3643 W.

Tom Schonhoff · Mar 25, 02:03 PM · #

105

uhh – never mind. 24 hour sunlight. Although it might be nice to have some kind of indicator for this, perhaps the direction of the sun at its lowest point?

Tom Schonhoff · Mar 25, 02:17 PM · #

106

I love this tool. I wrote a short article on it and added a link at my site. I hope you get traffic from this and a few donations. Here is what I wrote: http://www.chobesafari.com/photography-tips/photo-tip-a-must-download-the-photographers-ephemeris.html

Buddy Eleazer · Mar 26, 07:28 AM · #

107

@David, @Wim – thanks for the comments. Would love to see what results you get with TPE.

@Tom – good suggestion. Am sure I can do something better than showing a blank day!

@Buddy – thanks for the great write-up. I tweeted a link back to your site. I’d love to visit there one day!

Stephen · Mar 26, 08:29 PM · #

108

Hi Stephen,
I wonder if you can help me? I’ve heard this is a great program from some friend who uses it, so I thought i’d download and try it. But I can’t install it. I get the following error….

Sorry, an error has occurred.
The application could not be installed because the AIR file is damaged. Try obtaining a new AIR file from the application author.

….And can’t install it. I have installed adobe AIR. I’m running on Vista Home premium SP1, on an acer laptop.
Have you got any idea’s?
TIA
Nick

Nick · Apr 22, 04:12 PM · #

109

Nick – I’ve posted an updated troubleshooting guide to this issue here. Haven’t found a cast-iron solution to this yet. It only affects around 1 in a 1000 downloads and appears to be Windows Vista-specific. Please let me know how you get on.

Cheers,

Stephen

Stephen · Apr 22, 05:16 PM · #

110

Hi Stephen – Many thanks for that. It worked by downloading from the alternative location. When I downloaded from here it was only approx 240Kb not 240Mb. But I have it now and i’m sure it will help when I go to North Cornwall pretty soon.
Many thanks
Nick

Nick · Apr 24, 02:30 PM · #

111

Stephen – thanks for a FANTASTIC application. I have been using it as I plan my vacation out west this summer and it is immensly helpful.

Let me add my vote for an app for the Droid – would be thrilled to death if you have it up by mid-July ;)

Jenn · Apr 25, 07:00 AM · #

112

@Nick – glad that worked for you. Thanks for letting me know!

@Jenn – thanks! Will be looking into Android some more in the coming weeks. Mid-July is likely to be a bit ambitious, I fear, but you never know…

Stephen · Apr 26, 01:28 AM · #

113

Stephen, thank you so much for one of the most valuable photographer’s software products outside of Lightroom and Photoshop! It is an immensely valuable application that has already saved me considerable time by not travelling to locations unnecessarily.

Mike Gove · May 15, 06:41 AM · #

114

“one of the most valuable photographer’s software products outside of Lightroom and Photoshop”

Mike – can I quote you on that? :-) Glad you’re finding it useful!

Stephen · May 15, 12:29 PM · #

115

I have Google Maps connected and open and then try to start TPE, and get the following error: Initialization failed: please check the API key,swf location, version and network availability. I have no proxy settings set.

Mitchell · Jun 19, 02:49 PM · #

116

Hi Mitchell – there are a couple of things to check out on this one. See http://photoephemeris.com/support. If you’re sure you have internet connectivity and no proxy settings, then I’d check your firewall settings to ensure TPE has permission to connect to the internet.

Stephen · Jun 20, 01:46 AM · #

117

Great tool !! It’s great to have it on the iPhone.
With tides and weather information (such as windguru) it would be the perfect and complete tool for the landscape photographer.

Cheers
Fernando

Fernando Almeida · Jun 20, 11:02 AM · #

118

I first learned of this through your friend in the NAPP forums. A very cool application and I am also echoing support down the road for the Droid platform. I love the look and feel of this – very professional looking and it’s clear you’ve taken a lot of time with this!

Jason · Jun 24, 09:21 PM · #

119

Hi, I just bought the TPE and installed it on my iPAD, I can see how this will save me a few trips out at the wrong time of day\year hoping for a good sun position, thanks for this. Can you tell me when an iPAD version may be available.

Bob Smith · Jun 25, 01:25 PM · #

120

Hey Stephen
Any chance that you’ll develop for the Android market in the future?

Cheers and thanks for the great program :)

Stephen · Jul 2, 10:19 PM · #

121

Thanks for The Photographer’s Ephemeris. I’ve been wanting this for years. I’ve been using QuickPhasePro for lunar data and various websites for solar data. I love having both in one and especially the graphic representation. Now, if only TPE had tidal information…

Buck Ward · Jul 3, 12:59 PM · #

122

PS
I learned about TPE in a forum at NPN, www.naturephotographers.net

Buck Ward · Jul 3, 01:03 PM · #

123

This is the most cool tool I have yet seen, great work! Is there a way to change the time units to 12 hours AM PM? I am not great at military time… I am guessing next time I go shoot a sunset my pics will improve 100% :) Thanks so much for your work!

Manny · Jul 30, 09:36 PM · #

124

I know I might be asking too much of you and TPE, but is there a way to incorporate a “tides” tab on each day that is specific to a location of your choice? Would be very useful to us ocean photographers.

Thanks again for a great product and keep up the incredible work.

John Rader · Aug 6, 06:49 AM · #

125

Thank you for a fantastic application!
REALLY useful for me!

I would love to see this app also on my Maemo (Debian Linux) based mobile device (Nokia N900) (more units coming). And also on Android based mobiles.

Tides has been mentioned, so If you find a way, and the time, we will be even more happy!

Again, fantastic work!!

BR.
Ole

Ole Salomonsen · Aug 17, 01:18 AM · #

126

Hi Stephen,
Can I please add my heartfelt thanks for such a useful application. It’s been invaluable in helping plan shoots. One thing that I would like to suggest is the option to quickly recover the secondary marker from a previous location to within the existing view, perhaps by Alt Click or Alt Right Click.

I would also LOVE to see this app on my Android phone :o)

Thanks again, Pete

Pete · Oct 4, 04:11 PM · #

127

Hi,
Very nice tool! I love it.

Now Adobe Air is available for Android. There’s a possibility for see TPE in this kind of phones?

Best regards,
Sergi

Sergi · Oct 8, 07:49 AM · #

128

Another vote for a Droid app. Also, any chance in the future that slewing the map will be possible?

PapaWhisky · Oct 14, 02:25 PM · #

129

For the Droid please! This is an awesome app…

k2luvs · Oct 22, 08:40 AM · #

130

I also got the error ‘Initialization failed: please check the API key, swf location, version and network availability’. Just in case anyone else is stuck with this problem and other things haven’t worked, here is how I solved the problem:

I’m using the Firefox browser, but the problem turned out to be that Internet Explorer had set itself to ‘work offline’ without my knowledge. When I opened an Internet Explorer browser window and un-ticked the ‘work offline’ option, then tried TPE again (in Firefox), it worked!

John · Oct 27, 11:41 AM · #

131

Very cool app – I’ve been uisng tables for years but having an ap on the laptop is going to be very handy. Once minor problem that may be AIR related – the text bar where you type the location to be searched for is not tablet computer friendly. When you use the tablet virtual keyboard or tablet handwriting the text control loses the focus (it shouldn’t – which is why I think this is an AIR problem).

Paul Pavlinovich · Nov 16, 08:39 PM · #

132

Hi Stephen,
I’ve been promoting TPE to friends for quite a while and recently I bought your iPhone app. Since it’s a bit of a struggle to use the mobile app with my “old” iPod Touch 2G, I’m looking forward to having it on an iPad (soon-to-be-acquired). Kudos for making the search feature available in the iPhone app; any chance that TPE’s desktop version will get that search feature in an update?

I recently posted a “TPE-assisted” image in one of my zenfolio galleries (http://pirose.zenfolio.com/p728595087/e2f568bc3#h2f568bc3), and the image caption has a link to a page where I illustrate using TPE for the image (http://pirose.zenfolio.com/using_TPE). I know I didn’t get around to mentioning a number of TPE features; but I hope the reader will nevertheless get a good idea of the program’s capabilities (and my enthusiasm).

A feature request: It would be great if there was a way (button?) to easily locate the gray “horizon” marker. Also, I’d love to see some greater visibility for that marker and its (way too-faint) indicator line (as I find that the marker and its line often become nearly “invisible”).

Thanks.

Phil

Phil Rose · Mar 9, 01:22 PM · #

133

Been using TPE for a week or so, and it’s amazing and does everything it promises. I can only make one constructive suggestion : I am forever losing or failing to find the Secondary Marker. The dark grey teardrop gets lost easily , or is camouflaged. It needs to either be highlighted with a yellow or white border , or be able to changes its color altogether, in order to stand out.

Ditto the dark grey connecting line. It needs to be customizeable…black line, white line, or the standard grey.

I REALLY wish there was a button that turned on or flashed the Secondary Marker , or ‘ retrieved’ it. I can never get that crucial thing into the working scene when I need it.

Thanks for the great app , and if I keep using TPE , I’ll donate for sure.

-Dewey
Cody WY ——the Outdoor Photographer’s Mecca

DeweyV · Mar 20, 11:03 AM · #

134

This is terrific software. I believe it will be most helpful for many of the early/late day photos I take. One aspect which I don’t understand is that the values given for longitude and latitude are at a significant variance to what is on my 3 GPS, which all match each other. As near as I can tell, my GPSs are set to WGS84. What is the Ephemeris setting? Thanks, Roger

Roger · Mar 21, 03:23 PM · #

135

I wonder if there’s somewhere else where we should be posting comments about the (free) desktop TPE version. Stephen doesn’t seem to have responded here for some months now…

phil rose · Mar 31, 02:54 PM · #

136

Stephen,
Excellent app – thanks very much. I have installed on my iPad 2 and today on Windows.
I did have the “installer file damaged” problem – but I read the Hints and Tips docn and saw that the Air file on a network drive might cause problems. I moved it to a local drive and hey presto it all worked fine. I’m using Windows 7 Home (64 bit), so it’s not just Vista.
Many thanks,
Roy

Roy · Apr 21, 12:35 PM · #

137

Used your app today (first time) to shoot the (full) moon (rising). Thank you!

Wheeler · May 17, 11:18 PM · #

138

Great tool. If you plan a version 1.07, could you add a way to print the map along with the sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset azimuth lines?
Thanks…Peter

Peter · Nov 8, 01:43 PM · #

139

I downloaded the Windows version. I have the latest version of Adobe air installed. When I double click on the file all I get is a bunch of gibberish in a Notepad window.

Charles · Nov 19, 09:25 AM · #

140

How about a version of TPE for the 3G Kindle.

Susan Leonard · Dec 21, 07:53 AM · #

Sunday Oct 11, 2009 at 23:20

The Photographer's Ephemeris

Download

Latest News

Introduction

So what’s new about this?

Cost

Requirements

Installation

Tutorials

Part 1

Part 2

If you prefer reading to watching:

Using the program

Keyboard shortcuts

Configuration options

Advanced usage

When will the sun appear from behind that mountain?

Can’t you see farther from a mountain-top?

How do I know where the horizon is?

If in doubt…

Program expiry

Version history

Some notes on how it works

Accuracy

Known issues

Feedback

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