About Milky Way Planner
Built by an astrophotographer, for astrophotographers.
I spend more time planning astrophotography trips than actually shooting them. If you've tried to schedule a Milky Way session, you know how it goes. Open PhotoPills, scroll through each night one at a time, check moonset, twilight, galactic core position, then maybe start a spreadsheet to keep track of the good dates.
I got tired of that workflow. So I built Milky Way Planner.
At its core, the tool calculates when the galactic center is above the horizon during astronomical darkness for any location on Earth. It combines that with moon phase data, sunrise/sunset times, and twilight windows so you can see the full picture for an entire month at a glance. Pick a location and a month, and instead of checking each night individually, you can scan the whole month and spot the best dates in a few seconds.
The visibility rating (1 to 10) is based on how long the galactic core is visible in true darkness and how much the moon interferes. A new moon with a long dark window scores high. A full moon that's up all night scores low. Simple as that.
Premium ($25/year) adds a Moon Planner for lunar photography (supermoon tracking, rise/set directions, golden hour overlap), a Trip Planner for multi-stop itineraries, saved locations, and exports to Excel, CSV, and calendar formats. Everything I wanted when I was planning trips across the desert Southwest.
The tool doesn't tell you when to shoot, but it gives you everything you need to figure that out quickly. It saves me about an hour every time I plan a session. I hope it does the same for you.
Eric D. Brown, D.Sc.
Photographer
