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The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

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Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#21

Post by macintux »

TimC123456 wrote: post #18
chrisseaton wrote: post #10

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…

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

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#22

Post by rsfern »

chrisseaton wrote: post #17
darkerside wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's trivial to specify location manually. Only partially related, but I get irrationally annoyed by websites repeatedly asking me to have my phone provide access to my location. In almost all cases, I'd much rather type in a 5 digit zip code and be done with it.

Hmmm but I think people using this feature will be extremely sensitive to it reporting it exactly for their current location. Forgetting to change your zip code and it silently telling you a light time off by five minutes could be a massive problem.

So just display a warning/confirmation prompt when the user chooses to use a fixed location rather than real-time location tracking. Or add the configured zip code to the data display.

This doesn’t seem like a safety critical feature that would warrant withholding the choice to opt out of third party location tracking

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#24

Post by dgarrett »

supernova87a wrote: post #23

Is it just me or does anyone else not have access to this new face (even if watch is on OS v6+)? Do you need a certain watch series?

Some watch faces are only available on Series 4 and later, with their bigger screens.

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#25

Post by CorpOverreach »

chrisseaton wrote: post #14
mxmilkb wrote: post #4

I wish https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.staticfre... (similar in an Android widget) worked without requiring location to be on all the time.

But light depends on location. How can it tell you the light if you won't tell it where it is?

You could provide it a region or a specific location and it can give you the information for those coordinates. If you don't want to provide it location information 24/7, you should be able to deal with that "good enough" compromise.

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#26

Post by LeoPanthera »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10

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…

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

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#27

Post by jjtheblunt »

supernova87a wrote: post #23

Is it just me or does anyone else not have access to this new face (even if watch is on OS v6+)? Do you need a certain watch series?

yes : series 3 for instance doesn't have many faces from series 4 and later

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#28

Post by endlessvoid94 »

loosetypes wrote: post #11

There really is something eerily beautiful, as the author states, about simple layouts that convey the immediate information sought as well as the intuition behind the abstraction. Another I'd throw out there are the charts for latitude vs. hours of sunlight per day by month[0]. I have never wanted a tattoo, but that's an icon that I'd consider - maybe overlay each city in which one's lived, and periodically update i…

That's a super cool chart, thanks for sharing. Never saw that before.

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#29

Post by pugworthy »

A timely read, as I just got a Fitbit Versa as a gift and have been exploring the watch faces.

The Fitbit store has tons of them, mostly just crap IMO - the Hallmark card of watch faces as it were, with a lot of variations of "cute kitty background". But there are a few gems, including one I found that's based on a Tokyo Flash design.

Re: The Eerie Beauty of the Apple Watch Solar Face, and the Anatomy of Nightfall

#30

Post by Jtsummers »

chrisseaton wrote: post #13
Stratoscope wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

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