Sightline Analysis comes to Photo Ephemeris Web
We’ll be launching a new PRO feature in Photo Ephemeris Web later this week: sightline analysis. Sightline analysis starts by giving you an elevation profile between two points, but then goes much further to offer an invaluable tool for landscape and night photoraphy planning.
We’ll be launching a new PRO feature in Photo Ephemeris Web later this week: sightline analysis.
Sightline analysis starts by giving you an elevation profile between two points, but then goes much further to offer an invaluable tool for landscape and night photoraphy planning.
We derive the detailed effective sightline from the red map pin to the grey pin, calculating the apparent elevation angle corrected for Earth’s curvature and for the effects of atmospheric refraction. Areas that are visible are clearly marked in stronger colors, versus those that are out of sight, which are shown in a dotted line and paler color.
You can spot check distance, elevation and altitude angles along the sightline. As you move the mouse, the corresponding location on the map is highlighted by a moving map marker, making it simple to compare key points on the sightline to the corresponding feature on the map itself.
When the Sun, Moon or Galactic Center are close to the same bearing as the line from red to grey pin, they are shown in the sightline chart too, so you can see if they are visible or not at any given moment.
Going further, sightline visibility is calculated accounting for any elevation offset applied to the map pins. For example, if you’re a drone photographer planning a drone landscape shot and want to confirm the sightline to a mountain summit when flying at 350 feet above ground, you can do exactly that.
Sightline adjusted for elevation above the ground (+350ft)
The same applies to the grey pin - an elevation offset applied to the secondary pin is included in the visibility calculation, so you can check if the top of a building is visible or not.
The new tool is invaluable for quickly evaluating alignment possibilities for a given date and site. If you want to find an angle on the next full Moon, that aligns with a landmark, sightline analysis makes it easy.
Sightline analysis will be available in Photo Ephemeris Web 3.11, coming later this week.
If you’re like to learn more, join our free webinar on Saturday Feb 10 at 10:30am Mountain Time.
Register using this link.