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Making sun path calculations with SunPosition is very straightforward, this section will outline the process for making these calculations, the options that you have available and how to use them.

How to make SunPosition calculations - Over 47,300 locations available to members, a basic list of just over 8,000 locations are available to non members.

Step by step:

1# Select a location using the 'Continent / Region', 'Country / State' and 'City / Town' menus on the SunPosition Calculation page. Most browsers have Javascript enabled so the SunPosition page will update automatically on making a selection from each of these menus, if for any reason the menus do not update then use the 'Update' button after making a selection from each menu. Note: It is important to let the page reload fully after making a selection from each of the location menus, not doing so may cause that menu to stop loading all of the options that might be available for that menu. This does not apply to the date or date range menus.

2# If the location you have selected is using Daylight Savings Time then select the 'Advance by 1 hour' checkbox. This option will not be visible until a selection has been made from the 'City / Town' menu. If the selected location does not use DST then this option will not be visible. If the selected location uses DST but the selected date or date range is not within that locations DST start and end dates, then this option will be over ridden by the SunPosition application, in other words 'The time will not be advanced'.

3# If using 'True north' for your calculation then select that option, otherwise 'Magnetic north' will be used. Calculations will be adjusted for Magnetic declination if the 'Magnetic North' option is selected for your calculations, therefore readings can be taken directly from your compass without need for compensation, otherwise you will need to make corrections for magnetic declination if the 'True North' option is selected for your calculations.

4# Select a date or a date range for your calculation. If selecting a date range then select the 'Use date range' option, otherwise the calculation will be made for the first day of your date selection.

5# Press 'Calculate' and your calculations will be presented along with a graph for the selected day from the selected date range. The 'Calculate' button will not enable until you have selected from all the selections needed to make a calculation. Note: Non members can see an example of the 'Data Printout' option and print out by selecting 'Europe > Spain > MADRID' from the locations menu, this is the only location that will enable the 'Data Printout' button for non members. The 'Data Printout' button will be enabled for members on all the available '47,000 plus' locations.

Additional options available to users who have signed up:

Users need to login to access all the following options, although making calculations is as described above.

Making a calculation using the default SunPosition listed locations for members

Select the 'Select from default locations' button, wait for a few seconds while javascript updates the page options for your selection when you can proceed as you would to make a basic Sunposition calculation. This option is selected by default when the logged in user first loads the calculation page.

Making a calculation from your favorites menu locations

Select the 'Select from favorites locations' button, wait for a few seconds while javascript updates the page options, then select from the 'Select favorites location' menu. You must have saved entries into your favorites menu in order to use this option. After making a selection from your favorites menu you can proceed as you would normally to make a calculation.

Making a calculation with your own latitude and longitude values

Latitude and longitude values can be entered in ether decimal or degrees, minutes and seconds.

To make a calculation using values in Decimal you would simply enter the values as for example: 24.246333 and -67.75 using a minus value if needed, you do not need to enter N, S, E or W as SunPosition will know what these settings would be from the value you enter (i.e. If you entered the value with a - 'minus' or not).

To make a calculation using values in Degrees, minutes and seconds then the values could be entered as: 24 45 10 or 24 45, you will then need to select a N,S or E,W selection from the relative menus for the value you are entering.

After entering your values it is important that you enter a value for the GMT offset 'UTC Zone' and select if the location you are entering is currently using DST. If you do not enter these option values correctly then the accuracy of the calculation will suffer.

Printing a calculation

After making a calculation you will be presented with a page containing results for your selected date or date range along with a graph for that selected date. To print out that information select the 'Data Printout' button, a 'printing friendly' page will open with your calculation results and graph for the selected day in a printer friendly black and white formatted for an A4 page. When this page opens selecting the 'Print' button in your browser will print the results.

Saving a SunPosition default location to your favorites menu

Select the locaion from the menu, when all three selections are made from the location menus and Javascript updates the calculation page the option of 'Add selected location to my favorites' button will appear, just press this and the selected location will be added to your favorites menu for future ease of access.

Saving a custom entered location to your favorites menu

Select the 'Select from my favorites locations' option, wait for a few seconds for Javascript to update the page and press the 'Manage favorites' button. Select the 'add' link, when the next page opens fill in the various values needed to make a custom calculation, after pressing the 'Add' button your newly entered location will be added to your favorites menu for future ease of access.

Making an entry from your favorites menu available to other members

A request must be made to SunPosition to make one of a members personal locations available to other members. To do this, select the 'Manage favorites' button then select the 'Make available' link under the 'View mode' column for the entry you want to be made available to other members, a request will be sent to SunPosition. Although this process will normally take 48 hours, we cannot guarantee that a request for a location to be made available to other members will complete.

Deleting an entry from your favorites menu

Select the 'Manage favorites' button then select the 'del' link beside the entry you wish to delete.

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