It sounds a little like the subject line of a religious spam, but it’s not. Instead, Heavenly-Opportunity is software that solves two common photographic problems: (1) figuring out when the sun and moon will rise and set; and (2) figuring out when the sun or moon will rise or set at a particular spot on the horizon (or, for really sophisticated uses, like shooting through a window or natural arch, when they will be at a certain elevation above the horizon).
The first problem is merely figuring out when the sun (or moon) will rise and set so that one can shoot during the sweet light. Pretty mundane, since rise/set information is available from many sources. Still, its nice to be able to generate this information with a couple of mouse clicks.
The second problem is more interesting. Take this image for example: I would love to capture this scene (of Longs Peak, north of Denver) with the sun or moon setting directly behind the twin peaks at the left of this frame:
Sunset at Macintosh Lake, Longs Peak in Background
It’s moderately more difficult to figure out the right time of year to show up for that image. But the real challenge is capturing the full moon in the same place, since that involves two variables: the phase of the moon and the azimuth (place on the horizon) where it sets. That is the killer feature of Heavenly-Opportunity. Input a location, tell the software what variables you would like to search for, e.g. 3/4 or greater moon phase, setting within 1/2 hour of sunrise (so the sky will have some color) between an azimuth of 180 degrees and 190 degrees. Voila:
Heavenly-Opportunity (V3.3.0) search performed on 11/28/2008 for:
Selected place name = CO Longmont
Latitude = 40.16666
Longitude = -105.1
Time Zone = Mountain (-105°)
Height above horizon = 4941 ft.
Azimuth adjusted for a Magnetic Declination of 9.8°
Search Criteria:
Dates between 11/28/2008 to 11/28/2009
Moonset between 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after sunrise
-------------Moon---------------
Day Date Rise Az° Set Az° Phase%
--- -------- ------ --- ------ --- ------
Fri 12/12/08 04:31p 44 07:27a 296 100.0
Sat 01/10/09 04:33p 48 07:08a 294 99.8
Sun 02/08/09 04:43p 58 06:24a 285 99.1
Mon 02/09/09 06:00p 66 06:58a 278 100.0
Tue 03/10/09 07:02p 79 06:51a 265 99.9
Wed 03/11/09 08:12p 88 07:17a 257 99.4
Thu 04/09/09 08:09p 100 06:08a 245 100.0
Fri 04/10/09 09:16p 106 06:36a 238 98.5
Sat 05/09/09 09:11p 113 05:41a 229 99.6
Sun 06/07/09 08:57p 116 05:03a 225 100.0
Tue 07/07/09 09:01p 109 05:42a 228 99.9
Wed 08/05/09 08:03p 101 05:37a 236 99.9
Fri 09/04/09 07:18p 82 06:32a 254 100.0
Sat 10/03/09 06:07p 70 06:25a 266 99.8
Mon 11/02/09 04:36p 53 06:30a 285 100.0
15 days match all search criteria.
As an added bonus, the software automatically adjusts for local magnetic declination, which means that you don’t need to adjust your compass to use the software. Fantastic!
