Drop a pin on the map to draw sunrise, sunset, golden-hour, moonrise, moonset, and galactic-core bearings for buildings, ridges, and coastlines.
How to use
Place the camera position first — The city picker only gets you nearby. For real planning, click the map or drag the blue pin to where you will stand: a bridge, seawall, viewpoint, or street corner.
Then choose the shooting date — At the same location, sunrise and sunset bearings change a lot through the year. For sun-through-building or moon-over-ridge shots, the date is often more important than the minute.
Find the alignment time — Move the time slider and watch the right panel update azimuth and altitude for the sun, moon, and galactic core. When a line crosses your foreground direction, that time is worth scouting.
How to read the lines
The solid orange line is the current sun direction — It shows where the sun sits from the pin at the selected time. If it points toward a building, ridge, or horizon, the sun is in that direction.
The orange/red dashed lines are sunrise and sunset — Use them to quickly see which side the sun rises or sets from. For sunset aligned with a street, tower, or bridge opening, start with the sunset line.
Purple lines are moon directions — With the moon layer on, you can see moonrise, moonset, and the selected-time moon bearing. For a large moon shot, the bearing must match and the altitude should match your foreground height.
The cyan dashed line is the galactic core — This helps plan Milky Way compositions. A cyan line toward open sea or a clear southern view is usually better than one toward city glow or a blocked hillside.
Altitude tells you how high it is — The second angle in the right panel is altitude. 0° is near the horizon, around 10° works for low foreground alignments, and high values are harder to pair with landforms.
Common shooting scenarios
Sunset aligned with a building or street — Put the pin where you plan to stand, choose the target date, and see whether the sunset line crosses the building center or street axis. If it misses, change date or move position.
Telephoto moon over a ridge — Start with moonrise or moonset, then fine-tune with the time slider. The window appears when the moon bearing points at the ridge and altitude matches the ridge angle.
Milky Way over coast or ridgeline — Turn on the galactic-core line and choose a night near new moon. If the cyan line points to an open southern foreground, then check the dark-sky page for clouds and light pollution.
Pick your city, or tick “auto-align” to use GPS directly.
Find the red “galactic core” dot on the map and note which cyan compass label it sits near — on summer nights it is usually in the south.
Head outside, face that direction and hold the phone up against the sky: the pale band running through the core is the Milky Way. Darker skies (see the dark-sky map) show it best.