u/stijn021

I'm a sunset enthusiast who built a free tool that analyses the western horizon at 30-metre resolution across all of Europe. It was originally made to find good sunset spots, but when I realized the august 12th eclipse happens right before sunset, I added an eclipse mode that checks whether the terrain actually leaves the Sun visible at the moment of the eclipse.

You can try it here: https://www.sunsetatlas.ch/?mode=eclipse

I think the most useful feature is the "Find best spot" feature: you can search for the best spots within any radius of your location. Here's an example centered on Burgos, Spain:

https://www.sunsetatlas.ch/?mode=eclipse&lat=42.34399&lng=-3.69691&date=08-12&spots=5&r=30

It's a hobby project, completely free, no ads. I'm actively working on the tool, so if you have feedback or ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Hey all,

A few months ago I posted here about a tool I built that scores sunset quality across the UK based on terrain, vegetation and how open the sky is toward the sun. The response was really positive and motivated me to keep going. So after a little more than 2 months of tinkering I'm back with some updates.

For those who missed the first post: I love camping and for me one of the best things about it is sitting outside with a beer, cooking some food while watching a proper sunset. But I got tired spending hours looking on different sites for good spots. So I built a tool that does all the checking for me. It casts virtual rays toward the sunset direction for every 30x30 meter block across the UK and scores how clear the view is from 0 to 100. You can pick any date and it shows you a heatmap of sunset quality. You can find it at https://www.sunsetatlas.ch

Now here's what's changed since the last post:

1. Cloud forecast mode

This was my biggest frustration with the original version. The map could tell you where the terrain is perfect for a sunset, but if it's cloudy none of that matters. Now there's a cloud mode that shows you the expected sunset sky quality for tonight and tomorrow night. So before you pack up your tent and drive somewhere, you can check if the sky is even going to cooperate.

 2. There's an app now

I wrapped the whole thing into an app, available on both iOS and Android. Same map, same features, just easier to use when you're already out and about.

 3. Offline maps on the app

You can download the map for offline use, which is handy when you're heading somewhere with no signal. One small ask though: please be gentle with the download button. This is a hobby project running on a limited data budget that we all share. If everyone downloads all of Europe at once I'll have a problem.

 4. Much faster loading

I completely rebuilt how the map loads behind the scenes. Instead of loading one massive file, the map is now split into small tiles at different zoom levels, like how Google Maps works. The result is that it loads significantly faster, especially when you're zoomed in to a specific area. One side effect: the map looks very red when zoomed all the way out, because at that scale each pixel represents the best score in a larger area rather than the average.

 5. Eclipse mode (temporary but quite cool)

As some of you might know, on 12 August there's a total solar eclipse happening in Spain, and a deep partial eclipse visible from the UK. What makes this one special is that it happens right around sunset time, with the sun only about 10-12 degrees above the horizon in the UK. That's low enough that where you stand genuinely matters, a hill, a building or even a treeline to the west could block your view of the eclipse entirely. I adapted the algorithm to calculate whether the sun is actually visible at the moment of the eclipse and combined that with the regular sunset score to give you a final eclipse score. If you're planning a trip to Spain for the totality or just want to catch the partial from somewhere in the UK with a proper view, check it out: https://www.sunsetatlas.ch/?mode=eclipse

 6**. How it works page**

 For those who are interested in how the scores are calculated. I've added an how it works page with an interactive map. You can find all explanations here:

The sunset map is still at https://www.sunsetatlas.ch as always.

Everything is still free, still a hobby project, and I'm still very much open to feedback. If there's a feature that would make it more useful for your camping trips, let me know.

 Happy camping!

TLDR: Updated my sunset quality map with cloud forecasts, an app (iOS + Android) with offline maps, faster loading, and a temporary eclipse mode for the 12 August eclipse. Still free, still a hobby project. https://www.sunsetatlas.ch

Hello everyone,

I love to go camping and I love the sunset. So I made following pet project, which calculate the best spots to view the sunset. It checks mainly two things.

1. At what angle does the sun disappear behind the horizon, so at the sea this would be 0 degrees. With a mountain in front of you this could be 10-20 or more degrees. The lower this number the better.

2. Is there any vegetation in the way (trees, tall plants, ect.), also checks for houses.

The next solar eclips in Spain will be right around sunset, so a good sunset score will be the same as a good solar eclips score.

Do you guys think this is a useful website/data point? If this is the case, I could add a temporary mode for the solar eclipse. And then my question would be what some useful features would be.

I really hope this is useful and can help some people out.

Map: www.sunsetatlas.ch

Ps. I'm from Geneva, that's why it has the Swiss .ch extension.

This is from a tool I've been building called Sunset Atlas (sunsetatlas.ch, how it works). It scores every 30×30m cell in Western Europe on how good the sunset view would be from that spot on a given date.

The scoring works by casting virtual rays from each point toward the sunset azimuth (and a few degrees left and right, see how it works) and checking if they get blocked by terrain or vegetation. The terrain data comes from the Copernicus GLO-30 DEM and the vegetation from ESA WorldCover + ETH Global Canopy Height. The score is a composite of how open the horizon is toward the sun (60%) and local factors like openness, slope aspect, water/cliff proximity (40%).

The tool also has a date slider, since the sunset location is different throughout the year, so the scores are as well. And it also has a "find best spots nearby" feature where you can set a starting point and it'll rank the top spots within a radius, filtered by distance to parking or walking paths.

Hope you guys enjoy.