Sunrise, Sunset & Golden Hour Calculator
Sunrise and sunset calculator — enter any latitude, longitude and date to get sunrise, sunset, solar noon, the morning and evening golden hours, civil twilight and total day length, using the NOAA solar algorithm. Runs entirely in your browser.
Sunrise, Sunset & Golden Hour Calculator
How to Use the Sunrise & Sunset Calculator
Set your location
Type a latitude and longitude, or tap “Use my location”.
Pick a date
Choose any date — past, present or future.
Confirm the offset
Set the UTC offset for that place and date.
Plan your shot
Read sunrise, golden hour, sunset, twilight and day length.
The Sun’s Daily Choreography
The sun’s path across the sky looks simple from the ground, but predicting exactly when it will rise, peak and set at a given place takes real astronomy. This calculator uses the algorithm published by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the same approach behind many professional tools. From the date alone it works out the sun’s declination — how far north or south it sits — and the equation of time, a yearly wobble in solar time caused by the Earth’s axial tilt and elliptical orbit. Combine those with your latitude and longitude and you can pinpoint the local clock time at which the sun crosses any particular angle.
That single idea unlocks everything the tool reports. Sunrise and sunset are defined not at zero elevation but at about 0.833 degrees below the horizon, accounting for the sun’s own width and the way the atmosphere bends light so we see it slightly before it has truly risen. Push the angle to six degrees above the horizon and you get the golden hour boundary — the soft, warm, low-angle light photographers chase, when shadows stretch and colours glow. Drop it to six degrees below and you get civil twilight, the bright bookends of dawn and dusk when there is still enough light to work outdoors. The tool also marks solar noon, the true midpoint of the sun’s arc, which thanks to longitude and the equation of time rarely lands on clock noon.
How dramatic these numbers are depends on where you stand. Near the equator the day barely changes length through the year and sunrise hardly shifts; toward the poles the swing is enormous, until beyond the Arctic and Antarctic circles the sun may refuse to set in summer or to rise in winter — cases the calculator detects and reports rather than inventing a time. Because it works in UTC and converts using the offset you supply, you can compute times for any location and date, including ones with different daylight-saving rules, simply by setting the right offset. The results are accurate to about a minute for ordinary latitudes, which is ample for planning a hike, a wedding shoot or a stargazing session. And because the whole computation runs in your browser, your location and dates never leave your device.
Sunrise is reckoned at 0.833° below the horizon — the atmosphere bends the sun’s light so we see it before it has truly risen.
10 Facts About the Sun’s Timing
The golden hour gives soft, warm, low-angle light photographers love.
Civil twilight is when the sun is up to 6° below the horizon.
Solar noon is when the sun is highest, not always 12:00.
Day length swings most near the poles, least at the equator.
Near the equator, sunrise and sunset barely shift all year.
Above the Arctic/Antarctic circles the sun can never set — or rise.
The “equation of time” means sundials and clocks disagree.
Atmospheric refraction lets us see the sun before it truly rises.
Blue hour is the cooler light just before dawn and after dusk.
This calculator runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
- It uses the NOAA solar position algorithm. From the date it computes the sun’s declination and the equation of time, then combines those with your latitude and longitude to find the local times when the sun reaches the relevant angles — including the standard sunrise/sunset elevation, the golden-hour boundary and civil twilight. Everything is computed in your browser.
- The golden hour is the period after sunrise and before sunset when the sun sits low in the sky, producing soft, warm, directional light with long shadows. Photographers and filmmakers prize it. This tool marks when the morning golden hour ends and when the evening one begins, defined as the sun being around six degrees above the horizon.
- Solar noon — the moment the sun is highest — drifts away from clock noon for two reasons: your longitude’s offset within its time zone, and the “equation of time”, a yearly wobble caused by the Earth’s tilt and elliptical orbit that can shift solar time by up to about sixteen minutes. The calculator accounts for both, so the solar noon it shows is the true astronomical one.
- Civil twilight is the period when the sun is between the horizon and six degrees below it. There is still enough natural light to carry out most outdoor activities without artificial lighting. The tool reports civil dawn (before sunrise) and civil dusk (after sunset) so you know how much usable light bookends the day.
- You can type them directly if you know them, or use the “Use my location” button, which asks your browser for your current position and fills the fields in. Latitude is positive north of the equator and negative south; longitude is positive east of Greenwich and negative west. Many map apps show coordinates if you long-press a spot.
- The calculator works in UTC internally, then converts to local clock time using the offset you provide (for example +8 for Singapore, -5 for US Eastern Standard Time). It defaults to your device’s current offset. If you are calculating for a different place or for a date when daylight saving differs, set the offset to match that location and date.
- Above the Arctic Circle and below the Antarctic Circle, there are dates when the sun stays above the horizon all day (midnight sun) or never climbs above it (polar night). When the maths shows the sun cannot reach the sunrise/sunset elevation, the tool reports that polar condition instead of a time.
- The NOAA algorithm is accurate to roughly a minute for most locations and dates, which is more than enough for planning photography, hikes or events. Extreme latitudes near the poles, and the exact effect of local terrain and unusual atmospheric refraction, can introduce small differences, so treat the times as very close estimates rather than to-the-second guarantees.
- Indirectly: it uses whatever UTC offset you set. It defaults to your device’s current offset, which already reflects daylight saving where your device applies it. For other locations or dates, enter the offset that is in effect there at that time, since the tool itself does not look up regional DST rules.
- Completely free, with no account or limit. It works offline once the page has loaded and collects no data — your location and dates never leave your device.
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