How can I calculate the sun rising time for a specific point on earth?

How can I calculate the sun rising time for a specific point on earth? - Husband and wife spending time at home

I'm looking for a tool, application, etc. that allows me to calculate the sun rising time for any specific point on the earth. I've found a lot of such tools, but all of them do not take mountains, etc. into account that will block the sun. To clarify: I'm interested in the time when I'll be able to see the sun.

I'm asking this, because when traveling I like to take pictures during sunrise.



Best Answer

Can I suggest Stellarium, which is a free planetarium program available for Mac OS, Windows and linux.

For any date, time and geographical location, you can obtain sunrise time and position.

To take account of mountains etc, there is the added option of including into Stellarium a horizon image. This will give you an idea of how mountains etc may affect sunrise time.

I rather think, however, that including a horizon image into stellarium might well be more effort than you intend to exert!

As a rough and ready estimation of the angle subtended by a mountain, estimate as follows from here:

You can estimate altitudes by extending your right arm in front of you, at eye level, with the hand bent toward you, and turned so that the palm and fingers are extended horizontally to your left. With the thumb held next to the fingers, so that all five digits are close together, the width of the hand is about 10 degrees. If you have a narrow hand, or a long arm, your hand may only cover 9 degrees, and a wide hand, or a short arm, may cause your hand to cover 11 degrees; but there isn't generally much more variation than this.

You can then use the sun altitude data from stellarium to estimate when the sun will appear over the mountain. You might also need a compass to orient yourself and your observations.




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How is the time of sunrise calculated?

Sunrise/Sunset Calculations Then the UTC time of sunrise (or sunset) in minutes is: sunrise = 720 \u2013 4*(longitude + ha) \u2013 eqtime where longitude and hour angle are in degrees and the equation of time is in minutes.

How do you calculate sunrise using Nautical Almanac?

The true angular separation of the solstice and equinox sunrise is calculated by the following: sin(D) = sin(i)/ cos(l) where D is the angular distance of sunrise and sunset from due east or west at the solstices, i is the tilt of Earth's axis and l is the observer's latitude.

How do you find the sunrise azimuth?

The sun has always been visible in the sky, and its position forms the basis of apparent solar time, the timekeeping method used in antiquity. An Egyptian obelisk constructed c.



Celestial Navigation: Sunset \u0026 Sunrise Calculations




More answers regarding how can I calculate the sun rising time for a specific point on earth?

Answer 2

The Photographer's Ephemeris is the one that I use. It's quite practical and is an Adobe Air application.

I use it for the same reason that you mentioned and it hasn't failed yet no matter where I was.

It's available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android system, Windows and Mac.

Desktop version are free but you do have to pay 5$ (Android) or 9$ (iOS) for mobile apps.

Answer 3

All these graphical tools are very nice, but you can simply go to Time and Date on the internet. There under Sun and Moon you can check for any time. For example, to see the November 2012 times for Vancouver.

Another way is to look at the weather on Wunderground. For example, the forecast for Vancouver shows the sunrise and sunset times.

Naturally this doesn't necessarily take in the mountains, but if you know there aren't any then this is a quicker way.

Failing that, I use terrain data in Google Earth, which is what we did to calculate where the eclipse would be in El Calafate, back in 2010. The eclipse was like 0.5 deg above the mountains, so we had to have it between the right mountains and be up a hill ourselves, to avoid having them block it. It was touch and go, for sure!

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Ketut Subiyanto, Nothing Ahead, Ylanite Koppens, Andrea Piacquadio