App that tracks sun AND incorporates topography?

Question

I am looking for an app that will not only track the position of the sun at any given time on any given date at a certain location (like Suncalc or Photo Epherimis) but that ALSO incorporates topography into that calculation.

I live in an extremely mountainous place (Juneau, Alaska). We have huge shadows cast by the mountains here, and that is an important consideration.

Is there an app that shows location-specific times of sunrise, while considering line-of-sight obstructions, such as terrain? — xiota, Apr 01 '21 at 19:00
Hi Mary Catherine Martin and welcome to Photo SE! I strongly suspect you have a photographic motivation for what you are looking for, but perhaps you should make that photographic purpose a bit more explicit in your question? As it stands now, your question doesn't even mention photography or how any answer to your question might be applied to taking photographs and is thus off topic for this site. Thanks! — Michael C, Apr 01 '21 at 23:15
Does this answer your question? Is there an app that shows location-specific times of sunrise, while considering line-of-sight obstructions, such as terrain? — Saaru Lindestøkke, Apr 03 '21 at 12:39

Sac Lenca · Answer 1 · 2021-04-03T21:30:31.280

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Yes there is an App called Peakfinder. It's showing you exactly when the sun is coming up behind a mountain. https://www.peakfinder.org

edited Apr 03 '21 at 21:30

answered Apr 02 '21 at 16:13

Sac Lenca

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Does this tell you when the sun will come up as viewed by the user at the particular place the user is located while using the app?, that is the crux of the question. – Alaska Man Apr 02 '21 at 20:59
Yes it's telling the time when the sun will come up behind a mountain. I added a screenshot to show the functionality. – Sac Lenca Apr 03 '21 at 21:31

Tim Campbell · Answer 2 · 2021-04-02T20:38:04.327

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Sounds like you may be look for The Photographer's Ephemeris (and I think they just call it "Photo Ephemeris" these days.

See: https://photoephemeris.com

They have web, phone, or tablet versions. It calculates the position of objects such as Sun, Moon, Milky Way, etc. but is aware of terrain elevations and it's my understand that this app renders the shadows on the map.

I don't have Photo Ephemeris, I have Sun Surveyor ... which does nearly the same thing but does not render shadows. So I augment it with a Clinometer app on my iPhone (I bought the app years ago and never bothered to change to Photo Ephemeris even though I think it is the better app these days).

[Edit: It looks like the topography shadows are only rendered if using Photo Ephermis 3D on iOS.]

edited Apr 02 '21 at 20:38

answered Apr 02 '21 at 17:58

Tim Campbell

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OP mentions Photo Epherimis [sic] in the question, so it sounds like they're aware of it. But Photo Ephemeris's elevation feature isn't trivial to use, and it doesn't render shadows that I'm aware of. – scottbb Apr 02 '21 at 20:23
I had a bit more digging... the feature is in "Photo Ephemeris 3D" (not the regular version). A short video clip demos it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XhbyNUKfjg It appears to only be available on iOS. – Tim Campbell Apr 02 '21 at 20:37
Ah, gotcha. I don’ think I’ve used it. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks! – scottbb Apr 03 '21 at 14:39

App that tracks sun AND incorporates topography?

2 Answers2