Hello,

   I'm not exactly new, but I haven't been involved in Pov-Ray or raytracing in
several years.
   I need to plot the shadows cast by objects surrounding my back yard. I have a
solar power station there and want to determine the best location for the array.
Perhaps I need to make the array mobile for best results. I don't know. I want
to write a program that will achieve that.
   I also have expereience in GIS(Geographic Information systems. I've created
3D versions of topographical maps using Pov-Ray, USGS topo maps and DEM (Digital
Elevation Map) files.
   In that project, the position of the Sun was based on aesthetics, the most
pleasing position of the sun.
   There used to be someone named Chris Dennis who had developed a macro
entitled '/map.inc' for accurately calculating the position of the Sun.
   That link is dead and I cannot locate him.
   I have used solar position calculation scripts in Python astronomical
library, PyEphem, to plot the solar azimuth and elevation against the power and
battery state-of-charge throughout the day. I'm not sure how, or if, I may
incorporate the results of the library, or a python script that uses the
library, into a Pov-Ray script.

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