I need the inverse of that - an app that predicts how badly a given street will be baked by the sun at current or near-future time, will there be any shadow zone from the buildings, how far will the usable extent of it reach (e.g. not much use of shadow if my head or body stick up beyond the shaded volume). Ideally available on a smartphone. Bonus points for being able to route navigation paths to minimize direct sun exposure.
Motivation: I hate it when it's hot, but my kid has actual issues with heat/sun exposure, and e.g. I had to navigate our way around the city through shaded zones today, just so she doesn't get exhausted in under 30 minutes.
Plenty similar apps are made to sell people photovoltaics, but I'd love to see something to help humans avoid sun.
It would be nice to be able to access the website on a smartphone (even if the experience is suboptimal), instead of denying access.
There's a mobile app that supposedly works worldwide (but isn't available in my country).
Smartphones have the huge advantage of direction sensors (3D magnetometer and gyro). I remember using apps like Google sky map (or something like that) way back in 2011 to look at satellites and planets.
Really wish mobile browsers were better liars when it comes to "desktop mode"
Interesting, I've planned similar shots before and used different tools that serve a similar purpose. The Photographer’s Ephemeris has nice visualizations: https://photoephemeris.com/
NASA's Horizons ephemeris is also pretty good at preparing data for this. I've used it with a little script to check when the sun/moon will be in a given box. This hengefinder looks neat and really streamlined for its purpose though.
On a similar note, for this August's total solar eclipse (in Europe), I 3D modelled the sun's position in the sky from the viewpoint that I am planning to go to. The eclipse will happen late in the day when the sun will be low, so I wanted to make sure that nothing will obstruct my view!
I've been meaning to post about it.
I lived a long time in a city near the equator with a prominent east-west street. Commuting west to east in the morning and east to west in the evening meant frequent hengings. The roads don't feel particularly safe when you can't see anything. The town planners might have considered this.
Any angle within 23º of east-west will have henging at some time of year. You'd have to have the entire street grid be aligned diagonal rather than cardinal.
Additionally I have visited Stonehenge and it's sterilised and disappointing being unable to walk amongst the stones. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Nice, and awesome that it works internationally. One little feature request: provide an .ics download, so that I can add a calendar event, add a link to the original calculation to the the calendar entry.
Stonehenge of course, famously not a henge.
Apparently the word "henge" comes from the name Stonehenge but Stonehenge has the ditch on the wrong side of the bank to technically be a henge.
For any other curious people: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/what-is...
Ye - also the henge is the circular ditch, not the stone circle or whatever in the centre
Mobile app not available in your country. :(
then use a stick™
hint, watch the sticks shadow
other hint, can use almost anything that casts a shadow, as a stick substitute.
* even more hints availible with stick™ pro
I’d like to subscribe to stick™ pro! I tried a piece of string and it waved around in the wind and didn’t work, so I think I may need a paid service for this.
Manhattanhenge is cool but people standing in the middle of street for it is pretty nuts.
it’s nuts that more streets in manhattan aren’t pedestrianized
It doesn't work with curved streets.
Any sufficiently small section of the street is indistinguishable from a straight street.
Tell that to all the buildings blocking the light
The sun?
It would be good to also have the option for alignment with sunrises in addition to sunsets.
For instance in Houston the sunrise aligns with Texas Avenue around the June solstice.
Consequently, there are no sunset alignments for the downtown skyscrapers.