Photo Ephemeris Web 3.7 - some updates
We've released an update to Photo Ephemeris Web today with some notable changes. Let's walk through them in turn.
Sign in is now optional
Our web app has been available for nearly 10 years now. Until 2020, you could access it without needing to create an account and sign in. That changed in 2020 with v2, when we had to restrict access to signed in users to get operating costs under control.
Happily, we're now once again able to allow free access to basic functionality on the site without the need to sign in.
That said, we encourage you to create a free account and to use it: you'll be able to access additional free functionality (such as Geodetics, Horizon adjustments, and Visual Search) and, even more importantly, your settings and saved locations will be safely stored on our server!
Site Tour
For new users, there's a now a brief site tour available that walks you through the basics of the home page - click Start Tour to view it.
Start Page
There's now a much simplified Start page available. If you try to access the site on a smartphone, this is the page you'll end up on (as the main desktop site is not designed for small screens). Additionally, if you click the Share button and copy the link that is displayed, this now directs users to the Start page, from where they can click 'Start Planning Now' to jump into the site proper.
The intention is to provide a less overwhelming user interface with just the essential Sun and Moon information displayed on the map, with the color coding made very clear. And now, with no need to sign in, if you want to share a plan with your friends, workshop group, or photo club members, you can do so easily knowing that they can view it without the overhead of needing to sign up for an account.
2023 and 2024 Solar Eclipses
With two much anticipated solar eclispes coming up in the Americas - the annular solar eclipse of Oct 14 2023 and the total solar eclispe of Apr 8 2024 - we've decided to make these events free to all users.
There are many sites out there that provide free solar eclipse information, so it seems appropriate that Photo Ephemeris should do the same, allowing you to plan head for these major photographic events.
As you can see in the screenshot at the top of this post the solar eclipse simulator and eclipse path is displayed on the new, simplified Start page. We hope this will prove useful to anyone looking to develop their eclispe viewing plans in the coming months.
If you're interested in other eclipses, past or future, such as the 2026 eclipse over Iceland and Spain, or the 2027 eclispe over North Africa (it passes right over Luxor in Egypt), you can access details of all events for the years 1500-2500 with a PRO subscription.