LightCast · Alpenglow Alternative
LightCast

Looking for an Alpenglow Alternative?

GoldCast scores golden hour quality and pushes an alert when it's exceptional. StarCast does the same for night sky. Five more tools for every other condition you shoot in — one subscription.

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iOS app: $2.99/mo · 7-day free trial · Cancel anytime

Golden hour plus everything after

Why Landscape Photographers Need More Than Sunset Prediction

Alpenglow is built around one scenario: knowing whether the sunrise or sunset will be colorful. That's a genuinely useful thing to predict. But landscape photographers also need to know whether the night sky will be dark enough, whether fog will form in the morning, whether conditions are safe to fly a drone, and what the cloud situation is doing at different altitudes. LightCast covers all of these in one app, with push notifications across all of them.

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GoldCast: Golden Hour Scoring
Scores golden hour from 0 to 100 using cloud cover by layer, horizon clarity, haze, and humidity. Push alerts when a high-scoring evening is forecast. Covers sunrise as well as sunset — morning golden hour is often better and less crowded.
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StarCast: Night Sky After Golden Hour
When golden hour ends, the Milky Way shoot begins. StarCast scores night sky conditions and sends push alerts when a high-scoring night follows a good evening at your saved location — so you can plan a full shoot from sunset through Milky Way in one place.
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FogCast: The Next Morning
After the overnight shoot, will there be fog at sunrise? FogCast predicts morning fog probability and burn-off timing. A full 24-hour photography plan — sunset, Milky Way, fog sunrise — is manageable from one app rather than four.
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DroneCast and Beyond
DroneCast scores drone flight conditions. CloudCast breaks cloud cover by altitude layer. TriCast provides camera calculators including hyperfocal distance, 500 Rule, NPF Rule, and timelapse planning. Tools Alpenglow doesn't cover that landscape photographers need regularly.
LightCast
One app, one subscription

Replace the Stack With One Tool

If your current setup involves a sunset app, a night sky app, a weather app, and a drone conditions app, you're managing four separate sources before every shoot. LightCast consolidates all of it for $2.99/month — less than most individual photography apps. The web version is free to try before committing to the iOS app.

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Push Alerts for Every Condition
GoldCast and StarCast both send push notifications when conditions at your saved locations are forecast to be exceptional. Set your thresholds once and let LightCast tell you when to go — for golden hour, Milky Way, or both on the same night.
Common Questions
What is a good Alpenglow alternative?
LightCast covers golden hour scoring and adds night sky, fog, drone, and cloud conditions in one app. GoldCast and StarCast both send push notifications when conditions are forecast to be exceptional. Free at lightcastsuite.com.
Does LightCast predict sunrise color too?
Yes. GoldCast scores both sunrise and sunset golden hour using the same cloud layer, horizon, and haze analysis. Morning shoots often have better fog and cloud conditions than evenings — GoldCast covers both.
Does LightCast have night sky tools?
Yes. StarCast scores night sky conditions including Bortle class, moon phase, and atmospheric transparency, and sends push alerts when a high-scoring night is forecast. Both GoldCast and StarCast are included in the same subscription.
Is LightCast free?
The full web version is free at lightcastsuite.com. The iOS app is $2.99/month after a 7-day free trial and adds push notifications and saved locations.
What tools does LightCast include?
GoldCast, StarCast, FogCast, DroneCast, CloudCast, and TriCast. All six in one app for $2.99/month after a 7-day free trial.
LightCast
Every photography condition in one place.

Golden hour · Night sky · Fog · Drone · Clouds · Camera calculators
Push notifications · Saved locations · Free on web

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$2.99/mo after 7-day free trial · Cancel anytime in App Store