Sunset problem

[Polaris]

Hello,

I set up Cumulus recently [v1.8.7 (819)], and all was well, however, recently, I've noticed that my Sunset field started showing "----" instead of the correct Sunset time. When I set it up, it used to show the correct time. My Daylight and Daylength fields have data in them. My weather station is the National Geographic Model 265NC, and I'm running Cumulus on a PC running Windows 7 Ultimate Beta.

My co-ordinates are as follows:

Latitude N 43° 33' 30" Longitude W 79° 42' 44"

If I change my Longitude to E 79° 42' 44", the Sunset field populates a time, but when I change it back to W, the Sunset time goes back to "----". Is this just some temporary fluke based on my location that will correct itself over time, or is something else messed up? Any help would be appreciated. If you need any other info, please advise.

Regards,

Polaris

[steve]

That's very strange. Can you tell me what timezone you're in and I'll see if I can work out what's happening. I don't understand how it can be showing a correct day length if it's not working out the sunset time correctly. Is it showing the correct sunrise time? What about moonrise and moonset?

[beteljuice]

You are sure it's Sunset you are looking at ? - yesterday there was no MOONset.

How's your display today ? - got a link please.

[Polaris]

Yup, I'm positive. Here's the link:

http://www.predominet.com/weather/index.htm

As to timezone, I'm in the Eastern Timezone - GMT-5 it that helps.

- Polaris

[beteljuice]

As you say, you have daylight, daylength, dawn and dusk - but no Sunset

One for Steve

[Polaris]

Problem solved. But I'm not sure how....

I originally thought the problem related to something going strange with my location settings, so I changed the Longitude setting from W to E, which returned a Sunset time. But when I returned it back to W again, the Sunset data disappeared again.

After leaving it a while, and after reading the replies from beteljuice and Steve, I thought I'd try changing my Longitude setting up by one second & save it, and voila, the Sunset data returned. So I then set it back to its original setting, fully expecting the Sunset data to disappear again, but this time the data remained! In essence, changing the second value should have had the same effect, basically, trying to reset the location values, but for some reason it worked with the second, but not the E vs W setting changes......strange... unless the problem related to just the second value itself that became corrupted for some strange reason. Oh well....lesson learned I guess.

- Polaris

[steve]

I can't think of any explanation, other than your suggestion of the value being corrupted somehow. Odd.

[beeds]

Hi there,
I'm totally new to all of this so hopefully you can help.
I have bought my first weather station a WS1081 and was using 'Easy Weather' untill I came across 'Cumulus'
What a huge improvement!
Everything changed over well and looked fine until I noticed I too had a problem with
Sunrise/ Sunset times. Basically they are 12 hours out. I.e Sunrise at 17:57, Sunset at 06:04. However, my actual date and actual time is correct for data logging!
I read the post by 'Polaris' and I'm still trying to work it out.

I am in New Zealand, I don't know how to obtain my Lat/ Longitude co-ordinates as well.
Desperate..

Enjoying the site

[steve]

a problem with Sunrise/ Sunset times. Basically they are 12 hours out. I.e Sunrise at 17:57, Sunset at 06:04.

I am in New Zealand, I don't know how to obtain my Lat/ Longitude co-ordinates as well.

The second is related to the first. Cumulus can't hope to work out your sunrise and sunset times unless you tell it where you are. Google Earth is one way of finding out your co-ordinates, or any of the online mapping sites.

[Polaris]

Yup, I used Google Earth to come up with my Lat/Long info for my site, however, being a little internet cautious, I didn't use the actual Lat/Long of my residence, as I don't particularly want anyone who's interested to know EXACTLY where I live, so I picked the local Mall and used the Lat/Long details for that instead. Its close enough to where I live to show accurate data for Sunrise and Sunset/Moonrise and Moonset data as far as I'm concerned. Yup...call me paranoid!

- Polaris

[beeds]

Just a quick note to say thanks .. Tried the google map thing but wasn't very helpful with my location, so went to one of the applications on my partners Apple iTouch and found it there.
Worked a treat..
Sunset and sunrise times look good.

Just got to get my head around everything else now..

[Super-T]

Beeds....you must live out in the sticks if you're on low res in Google?
What's your co-ordinates?

[beeds]

Just getting back, Thanks Super T. I live out in Canterbury and google maps isn't the clearest out here.
My co ordinates Lat 43 29 7 S Long 172 13 2 E

[Super-T]

My son had a lifestyle block just north of the river from where you are Bede, and the resolution was crap there

[shamrockspider]

Its close enough to where I live to show accurate data for Sunrise and Sunset/Moonrise and Moonset data as far as I'm concerned.
- Polaris

You are quite right not to get too hung up over location accuracy with respect to rise/set times. The calculated rise/set times do not take in to account any local geographical horizon, your altitude or any local atmospheric conditions (temp, humidity, pressure etc) that will affect refraction. Refraction differences alone can result in differences of several minutes (<10 minutes) and the effect is of course worse at higher latitudes (nearer the pole). This is why any rise/set table is calculated assuming an average refraction index and only gives time to the nearest minute.