When you want to know the time the sun rises for any spot you are at (anywhere in the world), at any moment (now or in the future). Or when it goes down, the moon rises/ goes down and at what stage it is.....
Check out a (handheld) GPS. Some of them (like the Etrex serie from Garmin) can calculate stuff like that for any coördinates you are at or that you have programmed into its memory. Mine even tells me when it is a great time to fish or to shoot animals. Yeah, you read that right "SHOOT animals". :)
The right time to shoot animals is not only convenietn to a hunter, but also very useful information for the photographer (just a hunter with a photocamera as a rifle).
It can also help you find certain spots / trails. :)
Oh, it also tells you the exact angle (on a compass rose) where the sun comes up, so you can set up your gear towards the right point in the horizon beforehand.
While driving the hour to work on Sunday morning I saw this sunrise and HAD to stop and shoot. The above is my favorite, even though the actual sun is NOT in the frame.
When I go out for sunrise pics i make sure i get there 45 minutes to 1 hour before sunrise....some times you can get some great shots before the sky starts its show. Plus this makes sure you have every thing ready and set up and you can take a few minutes to enjoy the sunrise.
You could always just buy a paper almanac... quite a bit cheaper than a GPS system and less of a power drain too.
Yeah... but then we would lose some of the 'geek factor' some of us try so hard to maintain! :-)
I think if you're running around with a digital camera shooting anything and everything, you don't need to worry about trying to look any more geeky....
