Start the time-lapse at the sunrise of each day. Run timelapseSunrise.sh

customTimelapse.sh

#!/bin/sh

WIDTH=1920
HEIGHT=1080
NUM_FRAMES=$1
FRAME_INTERVAL=$2
DIR=$3

DATE=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S")
if [ ! -n "$DIR" ]; then
	DIR="${HOME}/timelapse/timelapse60/$DATE"
fi

mkdir -p $DIR
cd $DIR

echo "STARTING TIMELAPSE IN: $DIR"
# If it is the hour we want to record:
# take $NUM_FRAMES pictures with
# $INTERVAL_MINUTES of time in between each
for i in `seq 1 $NUM_FRAMES`; do
    FILE_NAME=$DATE"_"$i
    echo "TAKING PICTURE: $FILE_NAME.jpg"
    raspistill -w $WIDTH -h $HEIGHT -vf -hf -awb sun -n -o $FILE_NAME.jpg
    sleep $FRAME_INTERVAL
done

get_sunrise_time.rb

require "json"
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'

def open(url)
  Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse(url))
end

# Put in your own latitude and longitude
puts JSON.parse(open('http://api.sunrise-sunset.org/json?lat=45.4215000&lng=-75.6972000&formatted=0&date=today'))["results"]["sunrise"]

timelapseSunrise.sh

#!/bin/sh
INTERVAL_MINUTES=1
NUM_FRAMES=60
DIR="${HOME}/timelapse/sunrise/"$(date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S")
CHECK_INTERVAL=30 #seconds
MINUTES_AFTER_SUNRISE=0

mkdir -p $DIR

cd ${HOME}/scripts

while true; do
        # Check every $CHECK_INTERVAL seconds if we're at the hour we want to record
        SUNRISE_TIME=`date --date="TZ=\"America/Toronto\" $(ruby get_sunrise_time.rb) + $MINUTES_AFTER_SUNRISE minutes"`

        HOUR_TO_RECORD=`date -d "$SUNRISE_TIME" +'%H'`
        MINUTE_TO_RECORD=`date --date="$SUNRISE_TIME" +"%M"`

        echo "Today's sunrise is at: $HOUR_TO_RECORD:$MINUTE_TO_RECORD"

        if [ $(date +"%H") -eq "$HOUR_TO_RECORD" ] && [ $(date +"%M") -eq "$MINUTE_TO_RECORD" ]; then
                ./customTimelapse.sh $NUM_FRAMES $(($INTERVAL_MINUTES * 60)) $DIR
        fi

        sleep $CHECK_INTERVAL
done