Everything it does

The whole inventory,
not the highlights.

OwlPlot is a planning tool with a lot of small, specific things in it. This page lists them all, so you can check for the one you came for.

Light

The hours that decide a photograph

Every light window for the exact coordinates you are standing on, refraction included, to the minute.

Golden hour: The warm window in the morning and again in the evening, with the start and end time rather than a rough hour.
Blue hour: The short band after sunset and before sunrise when the sky still holds colour and the lights are on.
Civil, nautical and astronomical twilight: All three bands, both ends of the day — the difference between a lit foreground and a dark sky.
Photography score: One number out of 100 from cloud cover, humidity and visibility, with the reason it landed there.
Smart tips: What tonight’s conditions mean in practice — high humidity means watch for lens fogging, not just a percentage.
Sun position: Azimuth and altitude for any moment, so you know which way to face before you drive.

Sky

Moon, Milky Way, planets and aurora, calculated on the device for your latitude — no round trip, no account.

Moon phase and illumination: Rise, set, phase and how much of the disc is lit, plus where it will be in the sky.
Milky Way core: When the galactic core rises and sets, and the window where it is high enough and the sky dark enough to be worth shooting.
Dark sky window: When astronomical darkness actually starts and ends, which is rarely when you think in summer.
Aurora forecast: NOAA Kp read against your latitude, with an alert when it is worth looking north.
Planets: Where the visible planets are and whether they clear the horizon tonight.
ISS passes: Upcoming passes, propagated with SGP4 rather than a rounded schedule.

AR sky

The sky drawn over the live camera, so a calculation becomes something you can stand behind and check.

Live overlay: Sun, moon, planets and the Milky Way band placed against what the camera sees.
Time scrub: Drag time forward and watch the path move across the actual scene in front of you.
Sky paths: The full arc the sun or moon will trace, so you can see where it clears the ridge.
Frame overlay: Your lens’s field of view drawn on the sky — will the moon fit at 200mm from here.

Planning

The part that happens days before the shoot, when the question is whether to set an alarm at all.

Best night outlook: The coming nights ranked by conditions, so you commit to the good one instead of the next one.
Alignment planner: Find the date and minute the sun or moon lines up behind a landmark, from the spot you plan to stand.
Shot plans: Save a location, a subject and a time, and get reminded before the light does it.
Upcoming events: Meteor showers, eclipses, supermoons, equinoxes and solstices, dated for where you are.
Saved locations: Search anywhere on earth and keep the spots you return to.

At the camera

Eleven calculators for the numbers nobody wants to work out in the dark with cold hands.

Pinpoint stars: Longest shutter before stars trail — the NPF rule, and the 500 rule when you want it quick.
Depth of field: Near and far limits of sharpness for your sensor, focal length and aperture.
Hyperfocal distance: Where to focus so everything from there to infinity holds.
Focus stacking: How many slices, and at what distances, to cover near to far.
ND filter: The exposure after the filter goes on, including the long ones you cannot meter.
Exposure equivalence: Trade shutter, aperture and ISO and keep the same exposure.
Moon framing: How large the moon lands in frame at a given focal length.
Star trails planner: Frame count, sub-exposure length and total runtime for the arc you want.
Panorama planner: Overlap, frame count and rotation for the sweep you are covering.
Timelapse: Interval, clip length and how long you will be standing there.
Camera setup: Save your body and lenses once so every calculator uses the right sensor.
Field recipes: Worked starting settings for specific shots, and a reference section explaining the why.

Coast

Built for coastal photographers, and useful enough at the water that surfers started using it too.

Tide state: High, low, and which way the water is moving right now.
Swell and period: Wave height and the period behind it, on a scale that adapts to the conditions instead of flattening them.
Wind on the shore: Speed, and whether it is meeting the beach onshore or offshore — the thing that decides the surface.
10-day outlook: Pick a day and an hour, not just today, and keep the hour you are already looking at.
Surfer reports: What people actually saw at a spot, used to calibrate the forecast there. Filed without anything that identifies who filed it.
Water temperature: From the nearest reporting buoy, when it has one.

Everywhere

The times you check most should not need the app opened.

Home screen widgets: Tonight’s score and the next light window, without unlocking anything.
Live Activity: Golden hour counting down on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island as it approaches.
Apple Watch: The morning and evening windows on your wrist, in the spot’s own time zone.
Android: The same app, built natively, not a wrapper.
Notifications: A reminder before the window opens, if you want one.
Custom tab bar: Swap the tabs so the thing you open the app for is the thing you land on.

And what it doesn’t

No paid tier: Every feature on this page is in the free app. There is nothing behind a subscription.
No account: Nothing to sign up for. Your locations and plans stay on your device.
No ads: None, anywhere.
No tracking by default: Analytics are opt-in in the EU and UK, and can be turned off anywhere.

Free, no account, no ads. iPhone, Apple Watch and Android.

Questions about any of this? Support