Astronomy

We are both interested in astronomy, and we enjoy travelling to remote places to photograph solar eclipses.  (Even if the eclipse is clouded over, we still have a great adventure in Guadeloupe or Egypt or Mongolia or wherever...)  

You can find our astronomical photograhy at farstar.smugmug.com.

Capturing a progression shot of a solar eclipse requires planning, and you need to know the local circumstances of the eclipse for your viewing location.

There is a handy javascript eclipse calculator by Chris O'Byrne.  Even if you don't have internet connectivity, the calculator script is contained within the web page, so you can just copy the page to your laptop and open it locally.

Since we carry a lot of photographic equipment, the weight of our luggage is always a serious concern when we're heading to remote eclipse sites.  Consequently, I would like to be able to have a calculator on my iPhone or iPod Touch (which both come with Java enabled browsers).

I have re-formatted the Eclipse Calculator web page so that it is easier to read and use on the iPod touch and iPhone (or other small handheld browsers).

It looks ugly when viewed on a PC monitor, but it is more usable on an iPod touch (particularly in landscape mode) than the original page.

Just open it in the web browser and do not close the page.  It will still be there and be usable when you are off line.