My story
My childhood and Apphemeride — why I made all of this
I was born with a severe visual impairment. All my life, the direction of the Sun, the time of day, and the season have been deeply important to me for finding my bearings. Even as a small child, I didn't orient myself by buildings or paths. I memorized which way the Sun faces, at which time, in which season. Light and shadow were always my compass. I could already read a clock when I was just 4 years old.
Even as a first-grader, something fascinated me: on a cold day in November, the Moon at 5 p.m. stood almost in the same spot in the sky as the Sun on a summer morning at 10 a.m. In summer, by contrast, I was often sad that the full Moon hung so low. I loved looking at it. Even as a child, I wondered: why is that?
I often daydreamed about what our lives would be like if the day were governed not by the Sun but by the Moon. Imagine the Moon telling us when it's morning and when it's noon. Then perhaps our ancestors would have built moon clocks instead of sundials.
When I was seven, I always set the world time on my CASIO watch by the Moon. Simply because it made me happy. I dreamed of a clock that calculates the date and time from the position of the Moon. That was the very first thing I later built into Apphemeride. It's a small, unassuming feature of Apphemeride — but to me the most important one. It's the “Moon” readout on the moon map, together with the date and time.
For my birthday, my grandma often gave me a calendar listing the times when the Moon rises and sets.
