Landscape astrophotography

Photo Planner

Find your position. Plan your shot.

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Tap map to place camera · drag pin to fine-tune

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00:00Local day23:59

Camera position

Pin-based timezones are estimated. Check the zone near a border; you can set it here.

Subject position

The green line shows the bearing from your camera. Use Subject elevation in Terrain to plan its height.

Find your next night out

Milky Way calendar

Choose a month to calculate its nights.

Moon-free coreCore with Moon upNo dark core window

Large time: core in darkness. Green time: Moon below the horizon. Each square is an evening through the following morning.

Selected night

Astronomical darkness
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Core in darkness
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Moon-free core
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Peak in darkness
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Select a night to set its best time in the planner.

Cloud forecast · Open-Meteo ↗
How to read this calendar

Uses the same Stellarium calculations as the map. Darkness means the Sun is below −18°; moon-free means the Moon’s upper edge is below a flat horizon. The suggested time favours the highest core during moon-free darkness, otherwise its highest dark-sky position.

These are astronomical opportunities, not visibility guarantees. Terrain, subject-height and alignment filters do not apply to the calendar. Cloud percentages are nearby hourly predictions, not whole-night averages. Only the existing six-day forecast is requested; past nights and later dates have no weather estimate. Camera coordinates are sent to Open-Meteo through this server for forecast lookups.

Camera → subject

Check your sightline

Green: sampled terrain. Orange: straight sightline. Heights are relative to the camera’s horizontal plane, with Earth curvature included; vertical scale is exaggerated. Source resolution varies. This tests the subject’s sightline, not the Sun, Moon or Galactic Centre at a different bearing or height. Trees, buildings, water surfaces and refraction are not reliably modelled.

Elevation credits

Mapzen Terrain Tiles on AWS · Source licences

ArcticDEM: DEM(s) were created from DigitalGlobe, Inc., imagery and funded under National Science Foundation awards 1043681, 1559691, and 1542736.

Australia: © Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2017. Austria: © offene Daten Österreichs – Digitales Geländemodell (DGM) Österreich.

Canada: contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. Europe: produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union – EU-DEM layers.

ETOPO1: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Mexico: INEGI, Continental relief, 2016.

New Zealand: Copyright 2011 Crown copyright (c) Land Information New Zealand and the New Zealand Government (All rights reserved). Norway: © Kartverket.

UK: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015. All rights reserved. 3DEP, GMTED2010 and SRTM: courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Field preview · beta

Night AR

Manual preview · no camera

  1. Pin
  2. Camera
  3. Motion
  4. Align
  5. Ready

Check your camera pin

Confirm you are at the selected location before enabling hardware.

Manual preview. Camera and motion sensors are off.

Camera & motion access

Check the pin on the map before enabling camera or motion. Camera frames and sensor readings stay on this device; nothing is recorded or uploaded.

Heading alignment & manual view

Motion requires a fresh heading alignment each session. A compass reading is not assumed to be true north.

Use a visible landmark with a known bearing, or the Moon in live mode. These align heading only. Recheck after moving or rotating the phone. Do not use the Sun for calibration.

Visual anchor · beta

Enable live sky, camera and aligned motion first.

Choose a reference you can identify. The browser detects and follows its light only after you confirm the match.

Local processing only. Tracking stops if the light is lost or ambiguous. One reference can correct pointing drift, but cannot verify the whole star field or calibrate lens FoV and roll.

Phone lens & saved profiles

Phone lens FoV is an estimate, not a detected camera specification.

Save up to five profiles in this browser. Heading alignment is never saved.

The same name updates a profile. Match the same rear lens and crop when reusing it. A saved FoV is not a guarantee of pointing accuracy.

Experimental planning overlay, not precision pointing or navigation. Phone lens FoV, heading drift and sensor errors can shift the overlay. The Milky Way line is schematic, not a prediction of visibility. Never look at or aim optics at the Sun without proper solar protection. Camera and sensors stop when you close this view or leave the tab.

Continue?

Astronomy: the same Stellarium engine as Sky Map. Directions are calculated on your device.