Using Sitrec to plan your EU 2026 Aug 12th Solar eclipse viewing
- Thread starter jarlrmai
- Start date
Can you elaborate a little about how you are using it?
I will be travelling to Mallorca and have got as far as using Suncalc.org to work out that if I want to see the sun setting in the sea rather than disappearing behind land, I will need to move a mile or two south of where I'll be staying.
I'm thinking perhaps here, with the sun between the two (very flat) islets at totality. But the family might not be up for the long hot walk there (and back in the dark!) so perhaps not....
I just fixed some accuracy issues for precisely this type of thing. @ThomasH had a nice photo of the sunrise behind a building where the sun was horizontally off by half a degree and vertically off slightly. The exact DTLDs were known.
The fixes were firstly to account for axial precession -– the earth has tilted half a degree since the reference year. Secondly atmospheric refraction was not applying to buildings.
The precession fix is in. Refraction is mostly done, complete later today. But ENSURE YOU SWITCH REFRACTION ON especially for near the horizon shots. I'm going to make it be in by default.
Also, if anyone has any other photos of a moon or sun behind a large building - at high zoom with exact DTLDs, I'd love to use them to verify accuracy. It now matches @Thomas's image to <0.05°, so visually near perfect.
The fixes were firstly to account for axial precession -– the earth has tilted half a degree since the reference year. Secondly atmospheric refraction was not applying to buildings.
The precession fix is in. Refraction is mostly done, complete later today. But ENSURE YOU SWITCH REFRACTION ON especially for near the horizon shots. I'm going to make it be in by default.
Also, if anyone has any other photos of a moon or sun behind a large building - at high zoom with exact DTLDs, I'd love to use them to verify accuracy. It now matches @Thomas's image to <0.05°, so visually near perfect.
jarlrmai
Senior Member.
There are local high spots that look west, so I placed the camera there and set the time to the eclipse time, with the 3d buildings accurate elevation I know the FOV the sun will pass through and how long it will take
This will allow me to setup my wide angle shot
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=11433/Solar eclipse/20260804_150801.js
This will allow me to setup my wide angle shot
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=11433/Solar eclipse/20260804_150801.js
I don't think the terrain modelling is accurate enough to be very useful for the sunset use case... there seems to be a phantom pyramid out to sea!
Actually that seems to be an artefact of the 3D buildings layer.
To be honest though I think I'll just have to do a location scout the day before and imagine the sun 0.2 degrees to the left!
Actually that seems to be an artefact of the 3D buildings layer.
To be honest though I think I'll just have to do a location scout the day before and imagine the sun 0.2 degrees to the left!
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Yes it's perfect now! The height is still depending of a lot of atmospheric things, so you have to tweak refraction pressure a bit to have a perfect match, but all in all extremely close.
But with refraction off, the height is way off so maybe it should be on as default?
Here is the matching in Sitrec
....and my little TimeLapse:
Source: https://youtu.be/_DiOkfUbqXA
It is now (2.114.0) on by default.
And it's quite dramatic at these zooms:
Refraction off (geometric ideal)
Refraction on (real life)
At the horizon, it's nearly 0.5 degrees. That does not sound like much, but it's about the diameter of the moon.
Nice work @Mick West - Do you have any plans to correct for the gravitational lensing of the Sun? 
/s
/s
Are you logged in with 3D buildings and the building source set to Google Photorealistic?
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=1/Mallorca eclipse totality/20260804_175704.js
No, but I have plans, big plans!Nice work @Mick West - Do you have any plans to correct for the gravitational lensing of the Sun?
/s
Great.
It seems like photoephemeris.com, moon calc etc. use the refraction measure too, maybe just an average. Because when it says Moon a 0 degree it matches Sitrec with refraction ON
Wow Cool!
A small thing, I tried finding the exact center of the moon shadow of an eclipse, it would be a help with a small dot in the center, since the shadow it pretty big when zooming in
Wow Cool!
A small thing, I tried finding the exact center of the moon shadow of an eclipse, it would be a help with a small dot in the center, since the shadow it pretty big when zooming in
Oops, I shall fix and greatly improve this.
There you go! "Moon Shadow Center" and "Eclipse Path"
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=1/2027 Egypt Eclipse/20260805_052127.js
I obviously didn't have the right settings. So, moving the camera to my intended location it looks like totality will be well above the distant headland:
If I hiked round the bay then the crescent sun would just be kissing the cliffs as it sets:
That's got to be worth the walk right?
Incidentally, with refraction turned off it would set about 3 minutes earlier and into the sea:
Perfect, thanks!
Having said that, even from town it would still be pretty neat. I think persuading two kids to take an extra 5-mile return hike around desolate coastline just for a slightly cooler photo op might be a tough sell!
Just need clear skies now (and no thunderstorms for about 200 miles to the northwest!)
BTW here is the view from the Café del Mar in Ibiza: https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=5177/Cafe del Mar eclipse/20260805_112819.js
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