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SASHA supplants shady guesswork with Science

When most gardeners plant something, they guess how much shade or sun it will get — it’s simply too difficult to do otherwise.   The sun, and the shade it casts, are never still.  They move hour by hour, season by season. Tracking this movement time, recording it and averaging it, is simply too laborious and time consuming. 

Until now

A new app, Sun and Shade Analyzer (SASHA), does this all in seconds.  The app’s author, inspired by a gardening spouse who could not decide which locations in their yard have part sun and which have part shade (despite a PhD), decided that  this was a simple matter of physics and programming, and set to work writing an app which may change gardeners’ relationship with the sun!

SASHA quickly and easily predicts the average hours of direct sunlight at any chosen location over any number of days.  Users can go to a plant’s location, quickly scan their surroundings with the app’s camera, and the app will compute the daily direct sunlight at that location, averaged over the date range they have chosen,  taking into consideration all objects which might cast shade.

For the first time, horticulturists, landscapers, and gardeners can quickly determine where a plant will get the right amount of sun.  Or, given a place, they can measure its average sunlight so as to choose a plant which will thrive there.This app replaces what traditionally has been a “guesstimate” with a fast, scientific and accurate measurement generated on-site by an Android smartphone.

SASHA is:

  • TRANSFORMATIVE:  Like the USDA Hardiness zones, whose invention gave planters a scientific way to predict seasonal temperatures at a growing location, the app offers a scientific way to quickly predict how much direct sunlight plants can expect at a given location, averaged over a specified time, properly accounting for shading obstructions. 
    This was not possible prior to this app’s introduction.  In the past, equivalent information required observing sun/shade at a location over a period of months, using cumbersome physical aids, or mathematical modeling of shading objects.  With the app, a simple scan requiring only seconds gives all the same information.
  • EASY TO USE:  Just stand at a location and scan the surroundings, guided by the app. It takes less than a minute to get an answer.  A child can do it!
  • PRACTICAL:
    • The app automatically averages changes in sunlight due to time of day or year. 
    • The app can be used any time of year — it can simulate foliage if it is used during the winter.
    • The app can be used anywhere you can accomplish the scan.
    • The app will reduce the aggravation of moving plants from one location to another seeking the right amount of sun.
  • ECONOMICAL:  Introductory price is only $4.99 — the app will pay for itself  many times over in plant material saved and aggravation avoided!
  • UNIQUE:  there is nothing else like it on the market!   Patent Pending. 

Here’s how it works:  SASHA computes all possible solar paths across the sky during the specified date range, and uses your device’s camera to photograph anything that would block the sun’s light (foliage, buildings, etc.).  Then it  mathematically combines photos and paths, determines which parts of the paths are blocked, and gives the average hours of full sun striking the place during the selected date interval.

SASHA features include:

  • Uses GPS to establish your general location 
  • The user can manually set  the averaging date interval to any pair of dates from two days apart to a year apart. 
    If not set by the user, the interval defaults to ‘local growing season’ (based on the last spring frost date and first fall frost date at the weather station nearest your location).
  • Uses NOAA’s algorithms to accurately compute daytime solar passage across the sky.
  • Shows augmented reality on-screen indicators to help the user scan and photograph all possible solar paths during selected date interval. 
  • During the scan, on screen indicators also show which solar paths have been photographed, and which have yet to be photographed.
  • Once all paths have been photographed, the app computes the daily average of direct sunlight at  the device’s location.  The app’s algorithms process the photographs and automatically identify objects that cause shade (foliage, branches, buildings, awnings, umbrellas, etc.);   those portions of solar paths which are hidden by shading objects are excluded from the average of direct sun exposure.
  • In order to allow use during the winter (when foliage is reduces or absent) the app is able to “simulate foliage” to achieve a good estimate of the desired sunlight averages.

Buy now by clicking here:  SASHA. 

Or can copy & paste the full link:
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hookmountain.sasha.paid.release

Go outside and play with it.   It’s FUN!