Golden and blue hour, to the minute
The day’s four windows — morning blue, morning gold, evening gold, evening blue — for any place and date, with the sun’s direction on the map. Set a reminder, or send the shoot straight to your calendar.
What’s worth the trip this week
Scout goes through the days ahead and puts the best chances first — a sunset that could light up, a clear moonless night, an aurora chance, an ISS pass — each with the reason it’s worth heading out.
What’s your next great shot?
With Duskbox you already know: where, when, in what light. It’s the photographer’s notebook, finally complete: every idea becomes a moment, and all your moments are waiting for you in the agenda.
Works where the signal doesn’t
Download a country’s terrain once and it stays on your phone, no connection needed. Save the map of your spot too: when you reach the ridge and the bars drop to zero, it’s still there.
Tides
Rock pools at low water, reflections at high tide: see when the tide turns, right next to the day’s light. Save the level a spot needs, and Duskbox finds the days it lines up with the light you want.
Sun and moon, right where you want them
Pick a subject — a peak, a church tower, a lighthouse — and Duskbox finds the day the sun or moon lines up behind it, plus the line to stand on for every date. It knows the real mountains: if the sun drops behind a ridge an hour before the almanac says, you find out before you leave home.
Will the sky light up tonight?
A 0–100 score tells you how much colour to expect, from Poor to Spectacular. Duskbox reads the clouds layer by layer overhead and for 300 km towards the sun, where a bank of low cloud can kill the light before it ever reaches your sky. Up to three days ahead.
View from the spot
See the panorama from your shooting spot before you even set off: ridges and named summits out to 100 km, the sun or moon’s path drawn over them, and the exact minute it passes your subject. Not close enough today? Search the year for the best day.
Day-to-night timelapse, worked out
Interval, length and fading light: how long the sky takes to go from sunset to dark, what the moon is doing, and a call on the weather for that window — low cloud, wind, haze, a lens about to fog up.
AR Sky Planner
Point your phone at the horizon in front of you and see where the sun, the moon and the Milky Way core will travel. Mark a point on the skyline to find out when they cross it, and trace in the trees and rooftops no terrain model knows about.
Classics
Classics are the world's famous light events: the few days a year when the sun or the moon lines up with a street, a monument or a mountain — Manhattanhenge, the solstice sunrise at Newgrange, the sun sitting on the summit of Fuji. Duskbox works out the dates for every year and shows you exactly where to stand.
- Diamond FujiLake Yamanaka, shoreOctober 30, 2026 · 03:50 PMin 38 days
- Newgrange, winter solsticeBrú na Bóinne, County Meath, IrelandDecember 21, 2026 · 08:56 AMin 90 days
- Horsetail Fall, the FirefallYosemite, El CapitanFebruary 18, 2027 · 05:38 PMin 150 days
- ManhattanhengeNew York, 14th StreetMay 28, 2027 · 08:12 PMin 249 days
Astro nights
A moon calendar that flags the nights worth heading out for: the Milky Way core, visible ISS passes, aurora forecasts, meteor showers, eclipses and more.
Sharp stars, down to the last second
Tell it your camera, lens and aperture: Duskbox works out how many seconds you can keep the shutter open before the stars turn into dashes. More accurate than the old 500 rule, which overshoots on today's sensors.
Star trails, no guesswork
Pick the night and you already know how many degrees the stars will sweep around the pole, how long the session runs and how many frames you need.