I test a lot of smartphones each year, and it’s easy to get into a rut by using the same apps repeatedly. I’ll install all the usual suspects without branching out and taking advantage of niche apps designed to solve problems.
I decided to switch things up over the weekend. I was out with my wife and daughter and decided to pick up some mums to liven up our property for Fall.
I typically would never care if things got enough sun. My wife knows a thing or two about gardening, but if it were up to me, I’d just put plants wherever and hope for the best. However, I tried something different.
I came across the Sun Surveyor app, which allows me to see where the sun will be strongest at various times of the year. It was a neat idea, but as I dug deeper, there were way more uses. Here’s what I found out.
Gardening and home planning
It’s helpful to see into the future
Planting flowers and vegetables is complicated enough.
You need to worry about your soil, and then you should know what zone you’re in. A little too hot or too cold, and your more delicate plants don’t stand a chance.
And no amount of planning can prepare you for a deer to walk right up and munch on whatever they find appealing — and that’s before you even get to whether you have enough sun to grow your desired plant.
Thankfully, Sun Surveyor takes out some of the guesswork. Sure, the sunlight might be fine in March, but how will your Fall plants fare?
With Sun Surveyor, I can enter my exact location and see how much sunlight I’ll receive at various points on my property at different times of day.
The app is fantastic on my Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and I love viewing the sun’s path on the large display.
I can see a map view, which provides a top-down look at my property and shows where the sun hits.
I can also visualize it using Street View, where Sun Surveyor overlays the sun’s trajectory on Google Maps data, allowing me to stand outside in the exact spot and imagine what it will look like.
It’s useful and feature-rich, and being able to see where the sun will be at different times of the year is helpful for not wrecking your perennials.
Professional users will want to take a look
Photographers need to know about lighting
Sun Surveyor’s usefulness isn’t limited to gardening or hobbies. If you’re a photographer, lighting is crucial.
I remember our wedding photographer plotting out the Golden Hour at our venue, looking for the best times to get that ideal shot.
While using the app, you can walk the venue ahead of time, figuring out lighting angles months in advance.
Planning is a fantastic way to reduce anxiety, and special events are hectic enough. If you can easily mark out exact spots ahead of time, it takes one more thing off your plate.
There were tools for doing this before, but I love that I can point my phone at the sky and get an accurate trajectory of the sun’s path.
If you’re planning a video shoot, it’s similarly helpful.
You may be scouting locations in March, but filming won’t start until August. It’s important to figure out if you’ll be able to obtain the necessary lighting for the shoot when filming.
Sun Surveyor is a must-have for photographers, especially since it’s so easy to use and works well on your smartphone.
There are more creative uses
Stop being fooled by fake images
Locating the sun at any point and time of day has other uses.
AI imagery is getting scary. It’s harder and harder to tell if an image has been altered, and with just a few words into an image generator, you can produce life-like photos.
We’re going to need all the tools we can get to combat fake images, and Sun Surveyor is one of them.
It’s another level of detection, but if you know where a photo was taken, you can plot the sun’s position to ensure the light matches up.
AI excels at generating images, but it often overlooks finer details. If the light and time of day don’t match up, and you were already suspicious, you might want to be wary about trusting an image.
Sun Surveyor also helps with more practical matters. I get a full listing of celestial events. I can know when the next cool moon is to look at with my daughter or when the Milky Way will be visible in my area.
The app provides the best time to view with the naked eye, and I appreciate that it’s easy and aggregated in one spot — I’m more likely to check for events the simpler it is.
I love finding new ways to do things
I’m a creature of habit, so I wind up using my phone for the same things.
The next time you’re out and find yourself thinking about how to do something, see if there’s an app.
I’m glad I found Sun Surveyor, and I’m curious to see what other apps I’ve been missing out on.
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