December 21st was the winter solstice and the official start of winter. It is also the time the Sun starts marching north from our perspective here on planet earth.
I take a prominent object on the skyline, visible from many angles and use that as a seasonal pivot. Because I’m in Oregon our most prominent skyline object is the snow capped Mt. Hood.
Throughout the year I will visit different vantage points so that the sun will always rise from behind the mountain peak or close by from one of it’s flanks.
I use PlanIt Pro to do this planning. The VR viewfinder mode sets Planit apart from all other ephemeris apps. The user simply draws a box on the screen and selects sunrise, moonrise, or sets, or crescent moons from the drop down, the date range for the occurance and the number of results are listed. clicking on the results lists them out. Adjusting the box dynamically updates the date list.
This makes it real easy to know where to be to get that great sunrise, moon rise, etc. With the 3D model subscription you can preplan with many provided well known buildings, bridges & landmarks around the world to use with alignments with the sun or moon or Milky Way.
If you are in the Portland metro area, or will be this spring. The calendar here has several sunrises listed for public parks and spaces. Lastly, after the summer solstice this pattern repeats marching south. The same locations can be revisited 6 months from last time, sometime to the day, but plan it out.
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