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Moon phase would actually be useful for people who fish or hunt. For example, there's no point me getting up at 4am to hunt red deer on the tops or river flats

Moon phase would actually be useful for people who fish or hunt. For example, there's no point me getting up at 4am to hunt red deer on the tops or river flats in the dawn hours if it was a full moon last night, nor would hanging about in the twilight hours be fruitful, as the deer don't risk dawn/dusk when it's a full moon, they wait in cover for it to rise, then feed by its light. Come dawn, they've already moved back into their thermal cover to have a snooze. When I was starting out, it took me about four fruitless hunts to make the connection, w the first experienced hunter I discussed it with laughed at my painful learning curve. Fishing, I'm not familiar with, but I know the phase of the Moon is important also, not sure if it's gravity/tides related or light.

0xcg 3y ago
Exactly! To each their own for watches and complications. For hunting and fishing there is a (niche?) audience for things called solunar clocks or watches, and recently digital watches/clocks/apps that map the sun and moon in ways physical clocks and watches can't plot yet. ( I'm the developer of one that is a hobby app for viewing the sun/moon inspired by a classic 24 hour clock face https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moontime/id6448401297 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moontime/id6448401297 )
xen0 3y ago
Presumably getting up at 4am for a hunt requires a bit of planning? Is that really something an extra dial on your wristwatch will help with?
- EdwardDiego 3y ago
  Fair question. Doesn't take very much planning, my kit is set up for grab and go, and the beauty of living on a long but thin island is I'm driving anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours at most to reach the mountains where the deer are, so I can get a hunt in by driving up after work, and be back early afternoon, or sometimes just by setting my alarm for 3:30am and still be back in time to make a coffee before stand-up. But I'd especially love the moon phase on my watch because the number of times my ADHD arse has gotten excited about weather conducive to deer movement and headed off into the hills without checking the moon is too many to count, and cellphone coverage is largely nil once you hit the front ranges. Moon-rise/moon-set are good to know for other phases, as it gives you an idea of when the red deer (generally browsers in the forest, but they come out onto the grassy river flats after the spring flush, and onto the tops from late summer onwards) are likely to move from/to their bush cover to the feeding grounds around those times. If the shooting light overlaps with the rise or set of the Moon, there's a window of opportunity. But yeah, it's a niche use-case. (Re: conducive weather - a good nor'west rain/windstorm for a couple of days will see them very eager to feed as they tend to stay put in thermal cover during shithouse weather, and a clear cold frosty night after a few days of a cold southerly weather pattern (cold air, clouds, rain/snow) means you'll often find them heading to clearings that catch the early morning sun, and they're a lot easier to spot then. While they're very good at standing still to avoid detection, their condensing breath in the cold air isn't, and the lateral lighting at that time of morning makes the movement of the cloud even easier to see in binos)

0xcg 3y ago

Exactly! To each their own for watches and complications. For hunting and fishing there is a (niche?) audience for things called solunar clocks or watches, and recently digital watches/clocks/apps that map the sun and moon in ways physical clocks and watches can't plot yet. ( I'm the developer of one that is a hobby app for viewing the sun/moon inspired by a classic 24 hour clock face https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moontime/id6448401297 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/moontime/id6448401297 )

xen0 3y ago

Presumably getting up at 4am for a hunt requires a bit of planning? Is that really something an extra dial on your wristwatch will help with?

EdwardDiego 3y ago
Fair question. Doesn't take very much planning, my kit is set up for grab and go, and the beauty of living on a long but thin island is I'm driving anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours at most to reach the mountains where the deer are, so I can get a hunt in by driving up after work, and be back early afternoon, or sometimes just by setting my alarm for 3:30am and still be back in time to make a coffee before stand-up. But I'd especially love the moon phase on my watch because the number of times my ADHD arse has gotten excited about weather conducive to deer movement and headed off into the hills without checking the moon is too many to count, and cellphone coverage is largely nil once you hit the front ranges. Moon-rise/moon-set are good to know for other phases, as it gives you an idea of when the red deer (generally browsers in the forest, but they come out onto the grassy river flats after the spring flush, and onto the tops from late summer onwards) are likely to move from/to their bush cover to the feeding grounds around those times. If the shooting light overlaps with the rise or set of the Moon, there's a window of opportunity. But yeah, it's a niche use-case. (Re: conducive weather - a good nor'west rain/windstorm for a couple of days will see them very eager to feed as they tend to stay put in thermal cover during shithouse weather, and a clear cold frosty night after a few days of a cold southerly weather pattern (cold air, clouds, rain/snow) means you'll often find them heading to clearings that catch the early morning sun, and they're a lot easier to spot then. While they're very good at standing still to avoid detection, their condensing breath in the cold air isn't, and the lateral lighting at that time of morning makes the movement of the cloud even easier to see in binos)