Sun Position User Guide

This user guide explains how to use the Sun Position and Sun Position Demo apps developed by Stonekick.

Sun Position gives you a wealth of infomation about lunar and solar events including daily sun/moon rise, twilight, and sun/moon set times. It also allows you to track where the sun and moon will be at different times of the day by superimposing the sun and moon’s path on your camera view, or on a map.

Planning a photography shoot? - know in advance exactly when and where sunrise and sunset will be
Viewing a potential new home? Use this app to find out when you’ll get sun in your kitchen.
Planning a new garden? Find out which areas will be the most sunny, and which areas are likely to be in shade throughout the day
Getting solar panels? Check whether nearby obstructions will be a problem.

Data Screen

Sun Position has three screens - Data, Sun Path, and Moon Path.

The Data screen lists the times of various solar/lunar events including:

sunrise and sunset
moonrise and moonset
astronomical, nautical, and civil twilight
golden hour
solar noon
length of day
moon phases

For definitions of these see The Golden Hour Twilight and the Position of the Sun.

Sun Position Data Screen

Time zone and location

All times within the app are given relative to the time zone displayed - please make sure that this is correct! If not, click on the displayed time zone to access your device settings and change this.

The app will automatically determine your current location. It does this either via GPS or the internet so please make sure you have a location finding method switched on.

Sun and moon path screen

The Sun and Moon Path screen plots the path of the sun through the day. Aim your device at the current sun position to see the path, as well as the exact rise and set positions.

If you are seeing a rotated view through your camera, you can fix this within the preferences menu.

To turn on and off the different path options, press the button on the left hand side of your screen to access the side menu.

Sun Path Screen

Map screen

This screen plots the path of the Sun and Moon through the day in relation to your current location on to a map. To see the different options, press the button on the left hand side of your screen to access the side menu.

The lines of the map indicate the rise and set directions from your current location. The colors match with the data in the table at the top of the screen (for example, red is sunrise, blue is moonset).

The map shows data for the current day only. If the moon does not rise or set during this 24 hour period, no line or path will be shown. Also, for the majority of days you will see two separate moon paths. These represent the path of the moon between midnight and moonset in the morning, and between moonrise and midnight in the evening.

Sun Position Map Screen

Changing the date

In the full version of this app you can click on the calendar icon to change the date for which the solar information is displayed. The demo version is limited to displaying only the current day.

The app also comes with a widget for your home screen showing sunrise and sunset times, which can be accessed from your home screen’s widget list. Check out the choice of designs for this widget in the preferences menu.

Sun Position Widgets

Calibrating your device

The app will warn you if the compass in your device needs calibrating - please do not ignore these warnings or you could get inaccurate readings for the Sun Position. You can check the accuracy of your device at any time by pressing “Calibrate” in the options menu.

Android Sensor Calibration Warnings

Android Sensor Calibration Instructions

FAQs

Why do I need to calibrate my device?

The Accurate Compass app uses sensors within your device to work. If these are not accurate, the readings from the app will not be accurate. The sensors are very sensitive to interference from external magnetic fields and need regular calibration. For more information on this see the following blog article on calibrating your Android device.

I keep getting a warning message “abnormal magnetic field detected”. What does this mean?

The sensors within your device are very sensitive to interference from external magnetic fields. Move your device away from any metallic objects or electric cables (including computers, cars etc). Also check that you don’t have a magnet on your case.

The sun path in the app seems to be in line with the sun, however the times are two hours different. Is this a bug?

This is likely to be a time zone problem. Check that you have the correct time zone within the app - if not you will need to change this in your device settings.

How do I switch between the data and sun path views?

When you press on the word Data or Sun Path in the action bar a drop down menu should appear.

Can I request a new feature?

Definitely. we keep a log of all requests and try to implement them where we can. If you have a request please get in contact with us at [email protected]..