Sun and Moon Times and Aziumth
MPG V2.8, January 2013
Background
One of the best times for scenic landscape photographs are the periods from morning twilight to just past sunrise and evening twilight to sunset. Many photographs in Mt. Rainier NP are taken during these periods. To help photographers working in the NP, below are links to the current months for sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, and sunrise and sunset azimuth, along with some links to Websites to do your own calculations or this information over any time period you want.
Sun and moon information for recent and current months are listed below.
Information
Azimuth.-- Azimuth is the compass point in degrees from true north of the position of the sun on the horizon at sunrise and sunset. Altitude, which is not included in these Web pages but available on the Websites below or from downloadable software, is the angle of the sun above the horizon from the viewers perspective.
The azimuth is important to understand where the light from the sunrise or sunset will be coming from during that part of the day for your images. Altitude is also important to understand the shadows the sun will cast for the subjects in the scene and your images. Some of the Websites will calculate this information for any individual day in a printable format.
Terrain.-- An important note about the information on the sun and moon rise and set times and azimuth is that the terrain of Mt. Rainier NP changes everything, and unless you have the calculations adjusted for the specific spot of your interest, then the times will vary, less in the open upper elevation areas to considerably more in valleys or forests. This consideration should be used in your trip to accomodate time changes due to the terrain.
Additional Resources
Applications.-- In addtion to on-line information sites, below, for sun and moon times and directions, there are several good applications which provides photographers with a host of sun and moon information with more information, tools and features to determine the best times and locations for taking photographs.
The first of these is the Photographer's Ephemeris, which is a free Web browser-based app which can store specific locations (cookies) for future use. They offer this applications for the iPad and some smart phones too through the Apple iTunes Store. The second is the Time Palette. This application is a Mac-only application at this time and available through their Website or the Apple App store.
Websites.-- Below are some Web-based calculators for sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset and sunrise/sunset azimuth. Knowing your exact location in the NP isn't that critical as you can use the calculation for Seattle, Washington to be sufficiently close to make any minor adjustments in the field. Otherwise, Paradise is 46.77 ° north 121.73 ° west and the crest of Mt. Rainier is 46.85 ° north and 121.76 ° west for exact calculations.
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