If you’ve ever made a long trip to take pictures at an interesting location, only to find that the light is in totally the wrong direction, then help is at hand from a free piece of software which takes away all the guesswork. The program is called The Photographer’s Ephemeris (an ephemeris is a book or table of astronomical data) and although that might sound complicated it isn’t. It works using Google Maps in a very straightforward way - all you do is type in the name of the location and that spot appears on a map or a satellite image if you want. Two lines on the map show you the directions of the rising and setting sun and the times for these are displayed as well – for any day of the year. Now for the really clever bit! By moving a slider you can move through any time of the day and the direction of the sun is shown on the map. I tried this to find what time I would need to go to Durham Cathedral so the sun was just starting to light up the Western side but I could have just as easily looked at Stonehenge or the Empire State Building for that matter (although they aren’t so easy to get to).
All in all a very useful piece of freeware if you’re planning a photo trip. Downloads are from http://photoephemeris.com
Joe
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