How to use it
- Search an address or a place, or use your location, and pick the date.
- Drag the map to move the spot. The ring shows where the sun is at each hour; the dark field is every patch of ground your subject shades across the day.
- Scrub the time with the slider, or drag the day chart, to see the sun’s direction, its height and how long the shadows are.
- Switch between Sun, Moon or Both, and download a scout card to take with you.
What the times mean
- Sunrise and sunset
- When the top of the sun meets the horizon, allowing for the atmosphere bending the light (the sun’s centre 0.833° below the horizon).
- Golden hour
- From sunrise until the sun is 6° up, and from 6° up until sunset — low, warm, side light with long shadows.
- Blue hour
- While the sun is between 6° below the horizon and the horizon itself — before sunrise and after sunset.
- Shadow length
- How long a shadow is compared with the height of what casts it: 2× means a 6 ft person throws a 12 ft shadow.
How it’s worked out
The sun’s position comes from standard astronomical formulas, and the moon’s from a low-precision series good to a minute or two on rise and set — plenty for a scout. Times are in the location’s own time zone, worked out from the map itself, so they are right for a place in another zone. Search is by OpenStreetMap and the satellite imagery is by Esri.
Questions
Why do golden hour times differ between apps?
There is no single definition. This calculator counts golden hour from the horizon to 6° of sun elevation; some apps stop at 4° or 10°, or start below the horizon.
Are the times in my time zone or the location’s?
The location’s. Pick a place on the other side of the world and the times are what a clock there would read.
Can I plan a day in the future?
Yes — pick any date. The sun’s path, the golden and blue hours and the moon all follow it.
Does it work without signal?
In the free CamPlot Calculators app for iPhone the times and the sun’s path work offline; the satellite map needs a connection.