Skip to main content
Moonshade

Moonshade Terms of Use

Version 1.0 · Effective October 5, 2026

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and Patrick Böttge (sole proprietor), Ferdinand-Rhode-Str. 5, 04107 Leipzig, Germany (“we”, “us”). We provide the Moonshade app (“Moonshade” or the “App”). These Terms are also the license agreement for the App (custom EULA).

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE: MOONSHADE CALCULATES ECLIPSE TIMES AND REMINDS YOU OF THEM. IT DOES NOT PROTECT YOUR EYES. NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN WITHOUT ECLIPSE GLASSES OR A SOLAR FILTER THAT MEETS ISO 12312-2. REMOVE THEM ONLY DURING TOTALITY, ONLY INSIDE THE PATH OF TOTALITY AND ONLY WHEN THE SUN IS VISIBLY FULLY COVERED. TIMES ARE CALCULATED AND MAY BE OFF BY SEVERAL SECONDS, AND BY MORE NEAR THE EDGE OF THE PATH (SECTIONS 3 AND 4).

IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES, PLEASE READ SECTION 12. IT REQUIRES INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION AND WAIVES CLASS ACTIONS AND JURY TRIALS, UNLESS YOU OPT OUT WITHIN 30 DAYS. SECTION 12 DOES NOT APPLY TO CONSUMERS IN THE EU, THE EEA, THE UK OR SWITZERLAND.

1. Acceptance and eligibility

You accept these Terms on first launch, together with confirming that you have read the safety notes. If you do not agree, do not use the App. If you are under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to these Terms for you. Children should watch an eclipse only under adult supervision.

2. What Moonshade does

Moonshade:

  • calculates on your iPhone the times of a solar eclipse for a place (first contact, start of totality, maximum, end of totality, last contact), the duration of totality, the obscuration and the Sun’s altitude, based on Besselian elements by Fred Espenak (NASA GSFC) and, for Spain, the path limits published by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional;
  • shows the path of totality on a map and warns you when you are near its edge;
  • reminds you of the eclipse phases with notifications, alarms and a spoken guide, in particular to put your glasses back on after totality;
  • shows historical cloud statistics (climate averages) and, with Pro, a cloud forecast from Apple Weather;
  • includes general information on safety, photography and travel.

3. What Moonshade is not

Not eye protection. Moonshade does not replace eclipse glasses or a solar filter and cannot check whether your glasses are safe.

Calculated times. Times come from a mathematical model. They may differ by several seconds from what you see, for example because of the Moon’s limb profile, Earth’s rotation (ΔT), your elevation or an inaccurate location. Near the edge of the path of totality the difference can be large and totality may not happen at all. What you see through your glasses always takes priority.

Delivery by iOS. Notifications and alarms are scheduled on your iPhone. iOS decides whether and when they appear (notification and alarm permissions, Focus, volume, battery, correct device time). They may be late or missing.

Weather and travel. Climate values are historical averages, not a forecast. The cloud forecast comes from Apple Weather and may be inaccurate or unavailable. Suggested places are ideas without any guarantee; check access, safety and accommodation yourself, including official travel advice.

No medical advice. If you notice vision problems after an eclipse, see an eye doctor.

4. Safety rules

  1. Never look at the Sun without eclipse glasses or a solar filter that meets ISO 12312-2 – not even briefly and not when the Sun is almost fully covered. Ordinary sunglasses do not protect you.
  2. Remove your glasses only during totality, only inside the path of totality and only when the Sun is visibly fully covered. Put them back on as soon as the Sun reappears.
  3. During an annular or partial eclipse, keep your glasses on the whole time.
  4. Never look through binoculars, a telescope or a camera without a proper solar filter on the front. Eclipse glasses behind optics do not protect you.
  5. Put a solar filter in front of phone and camera lenses while any part of the Sun is visible.
  6. Check your glasses before use and supervise children.

Moonshade never tells you to remove your glasses outside the path of totality or during an annular or partial eclipse.

5. Location and cloud forecast

Moonshade uses your location on your iPhone to calculate times. For the cloud forecast (Pro), a rounded location is sent to Apple WeatherKit. Details are in the Privacy Policy.

6. Your responsibilities

Before eclipse day, check your location, your iPhone’s time (set automatically), notification and alarm permissions and volume, and use the rehearsal mode in the App. Do not rely on alarms alone. You are responsible for your own safety and for supervising children in your care.

7. License

We grant you a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use the App on any Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions (including Family Sharing where enabled). You may not copy, modify, reverse engineer, resell or distribute the App except as permitted by law.

8. Purchases

The countdown, the map, times for your own location (current or picked on the map), the safety guide, the “glasses back on” alert and the rehearsal mode are free. Moonshade Pro is a one-time purchase with no subscription and no renewal. Purchases are processed and billed by Apple as our agent (in the United States) or sold by Apple (in other regions, including the EU, the UK and Switzerland). Apple handles refunds and, where applicable, withdrawals under its policies (in the App: Settings › “Request a refund”). If a purchase is refunded, Pro ends; your places and all safety features remain.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AND EXCEPT AS STATED IN SECTION 2, MOONSHADE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. WE DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT CALCULATED TIMES MATCH WHAT YOU OBSERVE TO THE SECOND, THAT WEATHER DATA IS ACCURATE, THAT YOU WILL SEE TOTALITY, OR THAT NOTIFICATIONS AND ALARMS ARE DELIVERED ON TIME.

This Section does not limit any rights you have under mandatory consumer law (see Section 11).

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING TRAVEL COSTS OR LOSSES ARISING FROM WEATHER, THE CHOICE OF A VIEWING PLACE OR A MISSED ECLIPSE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL OTHER CLAIMS RELATING TO MOONSHADE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID FOR MOONSHADE IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE OR (B) US$50.

THESE LIMITS DO NOT APPLY TO DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY OUR NEGLIGENCE, TO FRAUD, GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, TO LIABILITY UNDER PRODUCT LIABILITY LAWS, OR TO ANY OTHER LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.

New Jersey residents. If you live in New Jersey, the following do not apply to you to the extent New Jersey law does not permit them: (a) the disclaimer of implied warranties in Section 9, (b) the exclusion of indirect, incidental, special, consequential and punitive damages, including travel costs and losses arising from weather, the choice of a viewing place or a missed eclipse, in Section 10, and (c) the cap on our total liability in Section 10. Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have under the New Jersey Punitive Damages Act, the New Jersey Products Liability Act, the New Jersey Uniform Commercial Code or the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. All other parts of Sections 9 and 10 apply to you.

11. Consumers in the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland

If you are a consumer and live in the EU, the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, this Section applies. Where it conflicts with other Sections, it takes priority.

  • Statutory rights. You keep your statutory rights for digital products, including remedies for defects and the right to updates (in Germany §§ 327 ff. BGB; in the UK the Consumer Rights Act 2015). We provide updates, including corrections of the calculation, at least until the last eclipse offered in the App. Section 9 does not apply to you.
  • Liability. We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under product liability law and under any guarantee we give. For slight negligence, we are only liable if we breach an obligation that makes the proper performance of this agreement possible in the first place and that you may regularly rely on (for example, calculating the times as described in Section 2). In that case our liability is limited to the damage that is typical and foreseeable for this type of agreement. Section 10 does not apply to you.
  • No arbitration. Section 12 does not apply to you.
  • Governing law. German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. This does not take away the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live.
  • Courts. You may bring claims in the courts where you live or in Germany.
  • Consumer dispute resolution. We are not willing or obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

12. Dispute resolution for users in the United States: arbitration and class action waiver

12.1 Informal resolution first. Before starting a claim, each side sends the other a written notice describing the individual claim and the relief requested (to us: [email protected]). We will try to resolve it within 60 days.

12.2 Binding individual arbitration. If the dispute is not resolved within 60 days, any dispute arising out of or relating to Moonshade or these Terms will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules and, where they apply, its Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this Section 12. The arbitration may take place by video or in the county where you live.

12.3 Small claims. Either side may instead bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies.

12.4 Fees. We pay all AAA filing, administration and arbitrator fees, except the consumer filing fee set by the AAA rules.

12.5 WAIVER OF CLASS ACTIONS AND JURY TRIAL. YOU AND WE EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND TO TAKE PART IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR ARBITRATION. A court, not an arbitrator, decides whether this waiver is enforceable.

12.6 Public injunctive relief. A court decides any request for public injunctive relief after the individual arbitration ends. That court action is paused while the arbitration is pending.

12.7 Severability. If a court finds part of this Section 12 unenforceable for a claim, that claim (and only that claim) goes to court. The rest of Section 12 stays in effect.

12.8 Opt-out. You may opt out of this Section 12 within 30 days after you first accept these Terms. Email [email protected] with your name and the sentence “I opt out of arbitration.” Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.

13. Governing law for users outside the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland

For users in the United States, the Federal Arbitration Act and the laws of the State of New York govern these Terms, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. For all other users outside the regions named in Section 11, German law applies. In every case you keep any protection that the mandatory law of the place where you live gives you.

14. Changes to these Terms

We will tell you about material changes in the App and ask you to accept them before you continue to use the App. Changes do not apply to disputes you told us about before the change.

15. Apple as third-party beneficiary and other Apple terms

  • Parties. These Terms are between you and us only, not with Apple Inc. (“Apple”). We, not Apple, are solely responsible for the App and its content.
  • Maintenance and support. We are solely responsible for maintenance and support. Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for the App.
  • Warranty. To the extent any warranty has not been effectively disclaimed, we, not Apple, are responsible for it. If the App fails to conform to an applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price (if any) to you. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation with respect to the App.
  • Product claims. We, not Apple, are responsible for addressing any claims by you or a third party relating to the App or your possession or use of it, including product liability claims, claims that the App fails to conform to any legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws.
  • Intellectual property. If a third party claims that the App or your use of it infringes their intellectual property rights, we, not Apple, are solely responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of that claim.
  • Legal compliance. You represent that you are not located in a country subject to a US government embargo or designated as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
  • Third-party terms. You must comply with applicable third-party terms (for example, your wireless data agreement) when using the App.
  • Third-party beneficiary. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms. Once you accept them, Apple has the right (and is deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary.

16. Data sources

Eclipse predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA’s GSFC. Path limits for Spain © Instituto Geográfico Nacional (CC BY 4.0). Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information. Map data by Apple; coastlines by Natural Earth. Weather data: Apple Weather. These providers are not responsible for our calculations.

17. General

If any provision of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. If we do not enforce a provision, we do not waive it. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and us about Moonshade. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them if we transfer the App, as long as your rights are not reduced.

18. Contact

Patrick Böttge · Ferdinand-Rhode-Str. 5 · 04107 Leipzig · Germany · [email protected]