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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

Wow this makes me want to buy an Apple Watch!

In the military knowing first-light and last-light, down to within a few minutes, is essential daily. I have an app on my phone that tells me sunrise and sunset, but as the article describes these aren't the same thing. I also have a very expensive top-of-the-range Garmin watch and even that just tells me the less useful sunrise and sunset, which makes me suspicious it's not as military as it markets itself as.

I don't know if anyone knows an app that gives first-light and last-light for the phone, so I don't have to buy a new watch?

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I don't know if anyone knows an app that gives first-light and last-light for the phone, so I don't have to buy a new watch?

I'd like one that takes into account terrain. All of the apps I've seen believe the world is a perfectly smooth. I live in a place with mountains, and my "last-light" time at certain points of the year can be as much as 50 minutes earlier than any app will predict.

It could be written. There is a dataset of world elevations at 1km resolution that I saw being used for calculating the horizon distance from arbitrary points. Searching just now it turns out that was low resolution data, 30-arcseconds and 1 arcsecond, 30m resolution is available! https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/where-can-i-get-global-elevation-d...

I like The Photographer’s Ephemeris (https://www.photoephemeris.com/) which includes times for astronomical twilight, nautical twilight, civil twilight, as well as moon and sun rise and set times, golden hour, shadow estimation based on landmark position and height, and so many more great features. A very handy tool for location/photo scouting. Has a web app, APIs, and all the usual platform apps, too.

I second this recommendation. TPE is a fantastic tool, helped me plan out one of my favorite photos: https://epep.us/image/136923745790

Nice.

Suntimes on Android is very nice: https://github.com/forrestguice/SuntimesWidget and shows "sunrise and sunset, twilights (civil / nautical / astronomical), blue and golden hour, solstices and equinoxes, moonrise and moonset, moon phases and illumination."

"Yes" make traditional watches with solar faces, if you don't want a smartwatch. https://www.yeswatch.com

That's really cool as well. I like the video explanation. Too many websites fail to explain what the product actually is and this simple site did a good job. Basic ecommerce done well here.

That said for nearly $700USD I'd rather go for a smart watch. Even though I understand why you wouldn't want one for privacy, distraction/addiction, or whatnot.

On your Garmin the out of the box Sunrise and Sunset widget displays civil twilight times...

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/fenix66s6xpro/EN-US/...

Or check the Solaris watch face which shows civil twilight, nautical twilight, astronomical twilight, and night.

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/0e019a96-aeb3-4aaf-81ed-4...

Above subject to which device you have.

> I don't know if anyone knows an app that gives first-light and last-light for the phone, so I don't have to buy a new watch?

Check out Sol and Sundial:

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/sol-sun-clock/id491537291?l=en

https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/sundial-solar-lunar-times/id97...

Google's weather widget has fairly detailed sunrise/sunset information.

https://imgur.com/a/Kp53K6B

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-weather-app-965754/

The Garmin Instinct I got for $150 shows civil twilight times. Is that what you're looking for?

Skylight for iOS https://apps.apple.com/us/app/skylight-sun-clock/id110775991...

The Weather Underground app for Android and iOS displays first light and last light.

Ah and even moon-rise and moon-set! But it doesn't seem to tell you for any day except today!

But errr... isn't the Weather Underground a domestic terrorism and bombing group?

They pivoted to weather data services

It used to be a terrorism and bombing group, but then they pivoted into running a network of amateur weather stations.

(Since the bombing group was underground we can of course never know for sure exactly which members were part of the pivot)

Contrary to what the others posted, the name is only a reference. The weather service is not a continuation of the earlier group.

It was acquired by The Weather Channel (later The Weather Company) which was later acquired by IBM.

I've been using LunaSolCal for many years. It's a quite extensive ephemera. (iOS, Android, and Windows)

https://www.vvse.com/products/en/lunasolcal.html

Sunclock for Android is pretty good for free (with ads, or pay to remove ads):

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.hbenecke.su...

I also have a Garmin and it gives me sunrise, sunset, and twilight on the same screen, and you can advance forward to view times for future dates. I use it all the time for planning. I think you might just not have configured yours to display what you want.

> In the military knowing first-light and last-light, down to within a few minutes, is essential daily.

Why is that?

Because there is a dramatic difference between nocturnal and daylight operations. https://www.yeswatch.com/wrist-watch/worldwatch/past-collect...

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