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Locating the sun's position

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Next Sunset
How is this sunset?
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No Sunset
It's OK
Nice
WOW!
Sunset Score
No Feed
No Sunset
OK
Nice
WOW!
How is the sunset ranked?

AI analysis plus recency-weighted viewer votes.

What the numbers mean

No FeedNo Feed
No SunsetNo Sunset
OKOK
NiceNice
WOW!WOW!
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What's New
v2.0.8 May 22, 2026
  • admin/cron-logs.php: long error messages and AI reasons now show a "more/less" expand toggle instead of being hard-truncated
v2.0.7 May 22, 2026
  • frame-helpers.php: fetch_yt_frame() rewritten — now calls yt-dlp + ffmpeg directly on the server instead of the external api.livesunset.io service
  • frame-helpers.php: m3u8 stream URL cached in locations.m3u8_url (5-hour TTL) — avoids re-running yt-dlp on every frame capture
  • frame-helpers.php: proxy rotation across 10 residential proxies for both yt-dlp and ffmpeg
  • ai-config.php: removed unused FRAME_API_URL and FRAME_API_KEY constants
v2.0.6 May 21, 2026
  • scripts/analyze_sunrise.php: new cron script for sunrise quality-check pipeline using v_current_sunrises and sunrise-specific AI prompt
  • analyze-helpers.php: analyze_location_once() and build_analysis_prompt() now accept $category param — shared logic for both sunset and sunrise, with score_reasoning and confidence fields populated for sunrise
  • analyze_sunset.php and analyze_sunrise.php: process 1 location per run (down from 5)
  • analyze_sunset.php and run_jobs.php: web-accessible via ?key=ls_cron_2026 query string (CLI still works)
v2.0.5 May 20, 2026
  • Frame capture extracted into includes/frame-helpers.php and scripts/capture_frames.php — independently monitored via cron_run_logs job_type=capture_frame
  • Admin › Cron Logs: Capture Frame job now visible in filter and KPI cards
v2.0.4 May 20, 2026
  • Fix: AI analysis INSERT switched from prepared statements to direct mysqli_query (fixes sky_condition truncation error on MariaDB strict mode)
v2.0.3 May 20, 2026
  • Admin › Jobs: "Analyze Sunset" card with Run Now button — manually trigger AI quality-check pipeline from the dashboard
  • Admin › Cron Logs: new page showing execution history for all automated jobs (AI analysis, sunset times, timezones, weather) with KPI cards, filters, and paginated table
  • Admin › Jobs Dashboard: Cron Status strip shows last run time and success/error state per job type
  • Scripts: analyze_sunset.php and run_jobs.php replace Make.com automation with self-hosted cron jobs including full logging
v2.0.2 May 4, 2026
  • Sunrise window shortened from 2 hours to 1.5 hours after sunrise
  • Countdown chip now shows "1h 26m ago" format instead of raw minutes for longer durations
v2.0.1 May 4, 2026
  • Admin › All segmented pages (Votes, Engagement, Action Log, AI Analysis, Eval Data, Analytics) now show only data for the active inventory category
  • Admin › Category toggle: fixed-position segmented control — Sunset always left, Sunrise always right; selection persists via cookie across sessions
  • Admin › Sidebar logo now reflects the active category toggle
v2.0.0 May 3, 2026
  • Admin › Candidates: "Approve anyway" button on previously dismissed candidates — you can now re-open and add any declined video
  • Admin › Locations: Sunset Now / All Locations columns now reflect the active inventory category
  • Admin › Locations & Candidates: Time Zones coverage strip and map correctly highlight which UTC offsets are currently active
  • Admin › Add Location: category pre-selected to match the active inventory toggle
  • Various admin panel improvements and bug fixes
v1.9.0 May 2, 2026
  • Three-tier viewer score: votes are now weighted by tier — Tier 1 (today + ±30 min window, ×1.0), Tier 2 (today, any time, ×0.5), Tier 3 (last 14 days not today + ±30 min window, ×0.3) — earlier votes from the same day now contribute meaningfully
  • Score blending changed to 50% AI / 50% human (was 70/30)
  • Admin › Recent Votes: page size increased to 25 with pagination controls
  • Admin › Recent Votes: delete button added per row (confirm dialog, instant row removal)
v1.8.9 May 2, 2026
  • Viewer score algorithm: votes now filtered to ±30 min of the current UTC time-of-day and last 14 days only — score reflects what the sky looks like right now, not historical averages from different times of day
  • Admin › Locations › Sunset Now: timezone column removed, new Detailed Rankings column shows individual qualifying votes (time ago, score, country flag) plus an "all votes →" debug link
  • Admin › Votes: Debug button added to Recent Votes and Top Locations tabs — opens per-location vote breakdown
  • Admin › new Location Votes debug page: shows all 14-day votes, highlights the ones counting toward the current score, displays live viewer score and active UTC window
  • Vote scoring logic centralised into ls_vote_score_where() / ls_vote_in_window() — single source of truth for both the scorer and all admin displays
v1.8.7 May 2, 2026
  • Controls panel: buttons made more prominent (higher contrast border/text), link buttons (About/The tech/Support) background unified with icon buttons
  • Support button heart icon now filled red
  • Location hint right gradient aligned to controls border — eliminates the seam between the location tiles and controls areas
v1.8.6 Apr 30, 2026
  • Mobile portrait: tapping the Sunset Score bar now opens an inline score info panel (blended / AI / viewer scores + AI reason) below the bar, replacing the location grid — tap ✕ to return to locations
  • Mobile portrait: How it works and Our Story modals capped at 80vh with scrollable body so the close button is always visible
  • Mobile menu: Support Us link added to the hamburger menu
v1.8.5 Apr 30, 2026
  • Sidebar redesigned: height reduced 5%, controls panel widened to 270px, new bottom row with About / The tech / Support link buttons replacing the old footer nav
  • Our Story modal: rewritten copy, inline links to What's New and How it works
  • How it works modal: new modal added explaining the app flow, tech stack, and support link
  • Version badge moved to left column, now reads "What's new?" and opens the changelog
  • Sidebar background opacity adjusted to 0.70
v1.8.4 Apr 30, 2026
  • Fixed presentation-mode switching to an old sunset on tab return — checkPresentationSwitch() now waits 250ms for stale tile fade-out animations to complete before reading the location list
v1.8.3 Apr 30, 2026
  • Cloudinary delivery URLs for location and quality-check thumbnails now use w_300,q_auto,f_auto (automatic format and quality) everywhere they are rendered — YouTube-hosted thumbnails are unchanged
  • Sunset Score chip under the location name shows the word label (e.g. OK, WOW!) instead of a numeric x/5; portrait bar matches
v1.8.2 Apr 30, 2026
  • Vote rate limit is session-only (same location + PHP session within 30 minutes) — removed IP-based cooldown that could block unrelated visitors behind the same proxy; no cooldown when session id is missing or shorter than 8 characters
v1.8.1 Apr 30, 2026
  • Sunset Score slide-in panel redesigned — clearer vertical flow, accessible heading, three boxed scores (Blended composite with muted “/ 5”, AI scan, Viewers), labelled 1–5 legend with larger icons, and a button CTA to view top moments on the location page
  • Blended ranking: AI plus decay-weighted viewer votes; the composite drives list sorting and on-screen chips where available
  • One vote per location per 30 minutes (session when possible, otherwise IP), with clearer in-panel messaging when you have already voted — run db/user_votes_session_id.sql on the database before relying on session-based limits
  • Admin location lists and map sort by blended score, with AI vs viewer breakdown where relevant
v1.8.0 Apr 29, 2026
  • Horizontal scroll hint arrows on the location strip — a right arrow appears when there are enough cameras to overflow, a left arrow appears after scrolling right, and both fade when no longer needed
  • Clicking the scroll hint arrows scrolls the location strip by ~280px; arrows auto-hide when content does not overflow
  • Sunset score icon (vote emoji) shown as a small rounded-square badge in the top-right corner of each location tile
  • Sunset score icon also shown inside the Sunset Score pill on the main video header
  • Score badge tooltips on desktop — hovering the tile icon shows the score label (e.g. "WOW!", "Nice", "No Sunset") to the left of the badge
  • Corrected score 2 label from "No Sun" to "No Sunset" across the entire app
v1.7.9 Apr 26, 2026
  • Video switch throttle reduced from 3s to 1s — cameras switch more responsively on user click
  • Fix v_current_sunsets view: quality score staleness now uses a 6-hour window instead of UTC midnight, preventing all scores from resetting at 00:00 GMT
v1.7.8 Apr 26, 2026
  • New admin Eval Data page: manually tag sunset snapshots (0–5 scale) to build a human-labelled test set stored in prompt_test_set
  • Eval Results tab: comparison table of prompt evaluation runs with exact match %, within-1-point %, and mean error; per-score breakdown cards with drift and accuracy bars
  • Detail view for each eval run: image grid with human vs AI score badges, AI reason text, and filter buttons by score level and error type
v1.7.7 Apr 25, 2026
  • All timers (location poll, transfer countdown) are fully paused when the tab goes to the background and cleanly restarted on return — eliminates the black-blink and surprise-switch on tab return
  • Transfer modal progress bar rewritten with wall-clock timing (Date.now) instead of tick-counting, so browser-throttled background ticks can never batch and fire multiple switches at once
  • On tab return: if last sync was more than 1 minute ago, a location refresh fires immediately (so presentation mode can switch without waiting up to 60 more seconds)
v1.7.6 Apr 25, 2026
  • Presentation mode no longer uses a background timer — switching to the #1 stream is now driven by the 60s heartbeat poll, so passive-tab return can never trigger an unwanted immediate video switch
  • Tab-return now initialises lastSyncAt to page-load time, preventing a spurious switch on first return within 5 minutes
  • Debug panel (?debug=1): tooltips on all variables and timestamps, +1min clock button that also fires the presentation check, Close button, and xxx keyboard shortcut to toggle the panel
v1.7.5 Apr 25, 2026
  • Tab return no longer force-reloads the video unless 5+ minutes have passed since the last sync — fixes "Video unavailable" flicker when quickly switching tabs
  • Switching streams is now throttled to once per 3 seconds; clicking a camera too fast shows a subtle "Slow down…" hint over the video
  • New admin Action Log page: real-time view of user actions (last 30 min) from tmp_user_views, with per-session drill-down, server IP badge, and a toggle to hide/show the streaming server's own heartbeats
v1.7.4 Apr 25, 2026
  • When you return to the tab, the app now runs a single ordered step: refresh locations → switch to the top-ranked stream if needed → reset poll and presentation timers, with guards to stop overlapping YouTube loads that could flicker or fail
  • Tweaked desktop YouTube player positioning (less top crop from the negative margin)
v1.7.3 Apr 25, 2026
  • Presentation Mode now always switches to the #1 ranked live sunset (never down the list) every 5 minutes, and it no longer turns off when you change locations — only the toggle disables it
  • Engagement analytics: heartbeats are now split into foreground (tab visible) vs background (tab hidden) minutes
  • AI Analysis: added an Accuracy tab comparing recent user votes vs the closest AI check (with local camera timezone times), and expanded internal AI details (scene_description + scene_reasoning) in the admin UI
v1.7.2 Apr 24, 2026
  • Database: the v_current_sunsets view now treats a camera’s quality score as 1 for each new day until a fresh scan runs, so yesterday’s score no longer carries into the live-sunset list. The view definition is checked in as db/v_current_sunsets.sql for documentation.
v1.7.1 Apr 22, 2026
  • Fixed blank screen when returning to the tab after hours away — the app now silently switches to the best live sunset immediately instead of showing the transfer modal
  • YouTube player is un-stalled on tab focus if it paused itself in the background
  • Fresh location data is fetched instantly on tab return instead of waiting for the next 60-second poll
v1.7.0 Apr 22, 2026
  • Presentation Mode — auto-switches to a higher-ranked sunset every 5 minutes via the transfer modal; starts on by default and turns off when you manually pick a camera
  • Redesigned sidebar controls — SVG icons, consistent button size, bordered pill style with hover and active states
  • Music button turns amber when playing; Vote button disables with a green ✓ badge after voting and unlocks on camera switch
  • Country flag now shown on desktop next to the location name (was mobile-only)
  • "Streaming sunsets 24/7" tagline is now a link to the locations page
  • Country name shorthand dictionary — long names like "United States Virgin Islands" are automatically shortened
  • Sidebar height reduced 10%, location cards aspect-ratio locked, controls column widened to fit all four buttons in one row
  • Auto/presentation mode toggle added to mobile header controls
  • Removed auto-opening vote popup at the 1-minute sunset mark
  • Local time and temperature chips hidden (temporarily)
v1.6.2 Apr 17, 2026
  • Cleanup: location tile HTML is now generated in PHP only — the duplicate JavaScript renderer is gone, so server-side and live-poll inserts always produce identical markup with zero risk of drift
v1.6.1 Apr 17, 2026
  • Initial page load now renders the location list server-side — no more "loading" placeholder tiles, the sidebar is fully populated on first paint
  • Polling for fresh data starts 60 seconds after page load instead of immediately (the embedded payload covers the first minute)
v1.6.0 Apr 17, 2026
  • Unified the page-load and polling APIs — locations, weather, and per-camera local time now come from a single /api/get-locations.php JSON call (down from three separate endpoints)
  • Sidebar now refreshes every minute with a smart diff — sort order, countdowns, temperatures and quality scores update silently, new cameras fade in, expired ones fade out, no full reload
  • Camera no longer auto-switches when its countdown hits zero — instead, the next sunset is offered (via the existing transfer modal) only when the current camera actually drops out of the live window
  • Per-camera weather lookups collapsed into a single batched query, removing the N+1 round-trip on page load
v1.5.6 Apr 17, 2026
  • Camera switch curtain holds 250ms longer (550ms total) so the new YouTube stream is fully ready before being revealed
v1.5.5 Apr 17, 2026
  • Fixed the YouTube iframe drifting a few pixels to the right after a camera switch (forced display:block on the iframe so jQuery can't make it inline)
v1.5.4 Apr 17, 2026
  • Cleaner camera switch on mobile — black curtain over the player while YouTube swaps the embed, then a 200ms reveal with location info appearing in sync
v1.5.3 Apr 17, 2026
  • Snappier camera switch — player hides instantly on click and fades back in over 200ms once the new stream starts playing
v1.5.2 Apr 17, 2026
  • Fixed video player nudging slightly to the right after switching cameras (iframe was being rendered as inline)
  • Tuned the camera-switch crossfade — a touch of breathing room so the new feed eases in (200ms out, 800ms in)
  • End-of-sunset transfer modal now overlays only the video player area instead of the full screen, and always sits above other UI
v1.5 Apr 17, 2026
  • Mobile portrait support — LiveSunset now works on phones in portrait mode
  • Portrait layout includes a location info bar, Sunset Score strip, and a camera grid below the video
  • Country flag now appears next to the location name in the mobile info bar
  • Sunset Score bar redesigned — tighter spacing closer to the video, with score icons aligned to the pill on the same row
  • Locations grid now scrolls vertically on mobile — every camera is reachable, not just the first 9
  • Smooth fade transition between cameras hides the brief YouTube logo flash when switching
  • "Locations" item in the mobile menu now opens the full /locations directory page
  • Admin Votes — main KPI changed from average ranking to "WOW / NICE %" (votes scored 4 or 5 in the last 30 days), with the same metric on the monthly chart
v1.4 Apr 12, 2026
  • URL sync — address bar updates to /#city-country-id as you watch each camera, enabling shareable links
  • Direct hash navigation — visiting livesunset.io/#city-country-id jumps straight to that camera if it's live
  • "Not active" modal — if the requested camera is not in the current window, a friendly prompt offers to view the location page or watch a live sunset instead
  • Browser back/forward now navigates between previously watched locations
  • Virtual pageviews sent to Plausible on every location switch for per-camera analytics
  • "View location info and historical sunsets" link replaces the old "Rank and contribute" CTA in the Sunset Score panel
v1.3 Apr 11, 2026
  • Individual camera pages — each location now has its own page at /{city}-{country}
  • Most Beautiful Sunsets showcase — top-scored screenshots highlighted per camera
  • Recent Sunsets — 30 days of captures with page-by-page navigation
  • Sunset Score History chart — 30-day daily averages with colour-coded score icons
  • Nearby Cameras section — other cameras in the same country with preview thumbnails
  • New /locations directory — browse all active cameras in one place
  • Dynamic sitemap.xml — all camera pages now indexed by search engines
  • SEO improvements — canonical tags, Open Graph, Twitter Card, and JSON-LD on all pages
v1.2 Apr 9, 2026
  • Feeds that go offline can now be temporarily hidden and re-enabled without losing any data
  • Fixed location names showing a leading comma when no region is set (e.g. Tokyo, Japan)
  • Various admin and AI analysis improvements
v1.1 Apr 7, 2026
  • Live thumbnails are now scraped directly from the video stream for cameras where YouTube doesn't return a live thumbnail
  • Current sunsets filter corrected — no more stale sunsets appearing hours after they passed
v1.0 Apr 4, 2026
  • Back after 5 years — LiveSunset is alive again!
  • AI now analyses each live camera feed and ranks sunset quality 1–5
  • Sunset Score panel — tap the chip to see the AI reasoning, scan time, and ranking
  • Real YouTube thumbnails replace the old country stock photos
  • Redesigned vote modal — bigger icons, blurred backdrop, click outside to close
  • Sunsets are now sorted by a mix of quality score and proximity to sunset time
  • Admin panel rebuilt with locations, votes, jobs, and analytics sections
  • Mobile bottom bar is more compact