This is Part 2 in a series of articles examining paintings by Canaletto that depict the moon at night. Can we use lunar position and phase to help date them? Today is the third Sunday in July. In Venice it marks the Festa del Redentore, the Feast of the Holy…

In March of this year, I spent a week in Venice. On my last day I found myself at lunch at a restaurant on the northeast side of the city, on the Fondamente Nove, enjoying the views towards Murano, S. Michele, and the Arsenale. I’d enjoyed seeing paintings by Ippolito…

Understanding unexpected solar eclipse times and odd-looking time zones in 19th Century Italy. Over the years, time zones have been perhaps the most frequent source of head scratching in developing The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE). In the tried and true tradition of “you don’t know what you don’t know”, I was…

Right now, our web app is effectively unavailable (our mobile apps are unaffected): There’s been a ton of lunar eclipse related traffic today and the app has already used its quota of Google Maps API calls. Having this morning received another monthly bill from Google for $436, 90% of which…

With a total lunar eclipse coming on Jan 20/21, we’ve added detailed lunar eclipse information to TPE 4.5 for iOS. Here’s what’s new. Lunar Eclipses in the Timeline Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are visible worldwide wherever the moon the above the horizon. They happen at the same time for all observers. The two critical…

The 4.4 update to TPE on iOS is rolling out starting today. Here’s a quick guide to some of the changes and improvements you should know about. En français, enfin We’ve added a French translation at long last. (Remind me, the next time I write an app, don’t be so wordy. This is…

This article originally appeared on our blog on the old photoephemeris.com in November 2012. We’re republishing it here, as some of you asked where it had gone! If you photograph outdoors, chances are you shoot the sun or the moon. …