App for iPhone and Android
Golden Odds
Know when the light will be worth it. Sunrise and sunset color odds anywhere in the world, golden and blue hour, the moon, Milky Way, aurora and fog, with a sky view that draws the sun and moon paths over your camera.
What it does
- Color odds for every sunrise and sunset, five days out, plus a map of the odds and "best near me"
- True sunrise and sunset behind mountains, and first and last light on nearby peaks
- Sky view: sun, moon and Milky Way paths drawn over your camera, for any day
- Night sky forecast, light pollution, planets, satellite passes, meteor showers and eclipses
- Alignment finder: when the sun or moon will sit behind a landmark
- Leave-by planner, reminders, lock screen countdown, tides, reflections, snow and rainbow chances
- Field tools: sharp-star exposure, depth of field, focus stacking, ND filters, HDR, time-lapse and star trails
Your first location is free forever. Golden Odds Unlimited saves as many as you like.
Questions
What do Great, Good, Clear, Mixed and Blocked mean?
They're the odds of a colorful sunrise or sunset. The best color comes from a clear horizon toward the sun (so light can get under the clouds) with some mid or high cloud overhead to catch it. Great and Good mean that setup is forecast. Clear means a clean sky with little to light up. Mixed means low cloud may get in the way, and Blocked means thick cloud or a cloud bank on the horizon. Every rating is shown as a word and stars, never color alone.
How accurate are the odds?
They're built from weather model forecasts, so they're best within a day or two and less certain five days out. Clouds are hard to forecast, so treat the odds as a guide and check the sky before a long drive. Rating each sunrise or sunset you see (one tap, anonymous) helps tune the scoring, and the shot journal shows how the odds have done at your own spots.
Why is my sunrise later than the official time?
Golden Odds checks the real terrain around your spot. In the mountains the sun can clear the ridge many minutes after the official (flat-horizon) sunrise, and drop behind it before the official sunset. Both times are shown.
The sky view lines don't match the real sun.
Phone compasses can be 5–15° off, especially near cars, metal or power lines. Wave the phone in a figure 8, then tap Align and center the real sun or moon in the circle. Zoom −/+ adjusts if the paths look too wide or too tight for your phone's camera.
How do I restore my subscription on a new phone?
Open Locations & settings and tap Restore purchases, signed in to the same Apple ID or Google account you subscribed with. To move your saved spots, notes and journal, use Settings → Backup → Export on the old phone and Import on the new one.
How do I cancel?
Subscriptions are managed by Apple or Google. On iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions. On Android: Google Play → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions. You can also tap Manage subscription in the app. Your saved spots stay on your phone if you cancel; extra spots are locked until you resubscribe.
Is my location sent anywhere?
Your saved spots live on your phone. To get forecasts, coordinates (rounded to about 1 km) are sent to our server, which asks the weather and terrain services on your behalf and keeps no record of who asked. Details are in the app privacy policy.
Alerts or reminders arrive late.
Your phone decides how often apps can check in the background, and iPhones sometimes wait hours. Opening the app refreshes all alerts and reminders. Make sure notifications are allowed for Golden Odds in your phone's settings.
Contact support
Email hello@heaton.photography with your phone model and what you were doing when the problem happened. You'll usually hear back within a day or two. You can also use the contact page.
App privacy policy · App terms of use
Data: weather from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0); space weather, alerts and tides from NOAA and the US National Weather Service; terrain from Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen); night lights from NASA Black Marble; air quality from AirNow; satellite orbits from CelesTrak.