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Manual preview · optional relative orientation

Direct the sky before you set the tripod

Enter a location and UTC time yourself, then project the horizon, celestial poles and exposure, gap and full-sequence trail arcs across your camera frame. Nothing is guessed, uploaded or saved.

This deterministic planner adds low-precision Sun, Moon and geometric twilight facts. Manual planning needs no permission. An optional consent-first orientation preview can follow relative phone movement after you align it yourself; it never requests location or camera access and does not claim true north, AR or device support.

1 · Describe the shot

Manual plan

Memory only
Place and UTC

Latitude and longitude stay only in this page memory. They are not put in the URL, browser storage or analytics. A downloaded plan contains them, so treat that file as private.

Target

Use mean-of-date equatorial coordinates. This bounded model does not precess J2000 catalogue positions for you.

Camera, lens and sensor
Sequence

Inputs are ready. Generate the plan when the values match your intended shot.

2 · Inspect the projection

Camera-frame sky map

No scene yet

Sky Director preview Generate a valid manual plan to draw the camera field, horizon, celestial poles and predicted trail arcs. Your deterministic sky map appears here Manual planning needs no location, orientation or camera permission

Optional · object URL only

Use your photo as a local backdrop

Never uploaded

Select one JPEG, PNG, WebP or AVIF up to 32 MiB. The page gives the browser a temporary object URL only: it does not inspect EXIF, decode pixels in application code, store the file, send it, or add it to analytics. Deterministic trails remain a separate SVG layer above it.

No photo selected. The numeric plan is unchanged.

Horizon Full sequence One exposure Shutter gap Celestial pole Sun, when above horizon and in frame Moon, when above horizon and in frame

Optional · relative movement only

Phone direction preview

Off

Manual planning requests nothing on load; orientation code loads only after the first explicit Enable activation, permission can be requested only after a second explicit activation, denial or unavailability leaves the manual planner unchanged, and location and camera access are never requested. Point the phone at the planned frame before enabling. The first valid sample becomes a temporary manual alignment; movement after it draws a relative pointer over the deterministic scene. This is not true north, a camera view, AR or a device-support claim.

Off. No orientation module, sensor listener or permission request has run.

Relative pointer inactive. The manual plan remains available.

Local file · privacy projection

Share a plan without sharing where you stood

Offline QR + JSON

SkyShareV1 is a separate, strict local projection. By default it restores UTC, target, camera, lens and sequence, while omitting latitude, longitude, the private plan/scene identity and any local photo. A downloaded JSON file stays separate from the optional explicit QR handoff below; neither path uses a server, storage or analytics.

Default preview · included: UTC, target, camera, lens and sequence. Omitted: precise location, private plan and scene hashes, local photo.

Generate a plan to export, or import a local SkyShareV1 file. A location-omitted import requires manual coordinates before Render.

Phone handoff QR

Generate is explicit and local. The QR contains a bounded same-origin #share=v1… fragment so another browser can restore the projection; this page clears that fragment immediately after accepting or refusing it.

QR default · location omitted. Included: UTC, target, camera, lens and sequence. Omitted: latitude, longitude, private plan and scene hashes, local photo.

Generate a valid plan, then choose Generate QR. Exact location stays omitted unless the separate checkbox is selected.

Built Sky Director evidence showing populated Sun and Moon directions, lunar illumination, and civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight rows for one deterministic plan
Deterministic built-UI screenshot from the current Sky Director with Sun, Moon and three twilight rows populated. It is interface evidence, not a sky forecast, camera overlay or quality benchmark.