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Mapping Sunrise and Sunset

  • 11-07-2020 9:19pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 23,694 ✭✭✭✭


    Not sure if i'm in the right forum but I'm looking for a website where I can map out the sunrise and sunset onto a terrain view like google maps?

    I know the whole, rise in the east, set in the west, but I'm looking for a map to mark it out at the different times of year.

    The reason, going for planning and want to know which side of the field to build the house on to optimize the sun.

    Thanks in advance.


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 6,675 ✭✭✭ronnie3585


    This site is excellent and should give you a lot of the raw data you’re looking for.

    https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,112 ✭✭✭Quantum Erasure


    www.photoephemeris.com and go to web app if on a laptop/desktop. Requires an email registration, but lets you put a pin anywhere in a map and see sunrise / sunset angles, suns elevation at a certain time etc.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Gaoth Laidir


    L-M wrote: »
    Not sure if i'm in the right forum but I'm looking for a website where I can map out the sunrise and sunset onto a terrain view like google maps?

    I know the whole, rise in the east, set in the west, but I'm looking for a map to mark it out at the different times of year.

    The reason, going for planning and want to know which side of the field to build the house on to optimize the sun.

    Thanks in advance.

    At this time of the year (around the summer solstice) the sun actually rises and sets in the northeast and northwest, respectively (e.g. in Athlone it's at headings 047 ° and 313 °.).

    In winter it's the opposite (headings 130 ° and 230 ° at the winter solstice). The sun only actually rises and sets in the east and west around the equinoxes.

    Nobody tell oriel about this thread...


  • Registered Users Posts: 462 ✭✭oriel36


    L-M wrote: »
    Not sure if i'm in the right forum but I'm looking for a website where I can map out the sunrise and sunset onto a terrain view like google maps?

    I know the whole, rise in the east, set in the west, but I'm looking for a map to mark it out at the different times of year.

    The reason, going for planning and want to know which side of the field to build the house on to optimize the sun.

    Thanks in advance.


    The distance from your house to the horizon is only a number of miles so it doesn't effect where you build the house in terms of sunrise/sunset. Unless there is a mountain or some other object from Northeast to Southeast in the morning or Southwest to Northwest in the evening, the length of sunlight across the seasons is always symmetrical to noon ( if it is 6 hours from sunrise to noon, it will be 6 hours from noon to sunset).

    https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ireland/galway


    The orientation of the walls is a different matter depending on your preference for light during the morning or evening in specific rooms and especially during the winter months.


  • Registered Users Posts: 23,694 ✭✭✭✭L-M


    See below a very crude google maps screen shot.

    The two possible site locations marked out and the house in black in both. The yellow line indicates a strong hedge.

    Where would you build?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 462 ✭✭oriel36


    L-M wrote: »
    See below a very crude google maps screen shot.

    The two possible site locations marked out and the house in black in both. The yellow line indicates a strong hedge.

    Where would you build?

    Cool !.

    It is perhaps best to build the predominant rooms, such as dining or living rooms, on an East/West axis as the Northeast facing walls on you photo will see a lot of sunlight in the summer (during sleeping hours) and not much during the late autumn and winter months. It means a compromise on the traditional orientation of the house parallel to the road and perhaps the Northwest of the field if optimum use of light is prefered.

    Wonderful to see a person put a lot of consideration into their home and good luck with it. It is possible to put some sort of equinox and solstices features into the house as a reminder that you did make the effort just as our ancestors at Newgrange and Knowth did.


  • Registered Users Posts: 23,694 ✭✭✭✭L-M


    See attached again yet another crude drawing.

    We have the long open kitchen in the orange box and a sunroom at the side in the purple box with windows all around.

    We were down at the site late last night and thought that we had made a mistake and should have built the house the opposite way around in the lower site marked on my crude drawing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 256 ✭✭jimmyjim11


    this web site is a little broken but might help
    http://suncalc.net/#/52.6359,-8.6571,15/2013.12.21/15:07


  • Registered Users Posts: 462 ✭✭oriel36


    jimmyjim11 wrote: »
    this web site is a little broken but might help
    http://suncalc.net/#/52.6359,-8.6571,15/2013.12.21/15:07

    Really cool app !. Thanks

    http://suncalc.net/#/53.6947,-6.4755,18/2013.12.21/15:07


    The main orientation of the Knowth structure on the March/September equinoxes is East/West while the Newgrange orientation is towards sunrise Southeast on the December Solstice. The people who built these monuments had real style and thankfully it is still alive in the considerations of L-M.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,235 ✭✭✭Oneiric 3


    jimmyjim11 wrote: »
    this web site is a little broken but might help
    http://suncalc.net/#/52.6359,-8.6571,15/2013.12.21/15:07

    I have the app version of site on my phone it works beautifully. Gives you location of sunrise and sunset for any given day relative to your current position.

    Edit: Google Play link to the app:

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vvse.lunasolcal&hl=en_IE

    New Moon



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  • Registered Users Posts: 23,694 ✭✭✭✭L-M


    jimmyjim11 wrote: »
    this web site is a little broken but might help
    http://suncalc.net/#/52.6359,-8.6571,15/2013.12.21/15:07

    Wow, that is exactly what I wanted, thank you very much.

    We have Planning already gone in for the house marked in my picture that I marked the sun room etc on, but we were there last night and we thought we were after making a huge mistake. But that was just the late summer sun, if we build on the other marked out site we would miss all of the day sun, just for that rare hour at night.

    Thanks for the help!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,363 ✭✭✭Popoutman


    You can also use Google Earth Pro, and set the date and time sliders to see the sun position.

    However:

    My personal favourite solution to your brief is here at this link
    Peakfinder.net - can set the sun path, and can then change the date to see pretty much exactly what the Sun will appear behind. It doesn't account for variations in refraction, so there will always be a little bit of error in time and direction (less than a few min under normal deviations).
    You can change your location and height above ground, recalculate the panorama, and it's pretty nifty to be honest.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,335 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    I have the advantage of seeing sunrise and sunset all year round. It's interesting the movement of the sun particularly at sunset. It travels between 2 head lands for me.


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