Sunrise, sunset and golden hour — anywhere, any date
Twilight, golden hour and blue hour computed from the sun's actual position, not looked up in a table. Works for any coordinate on Earth and runs entirely in your browser.
- Latitude
- 40.7128°
- Longitude
- -74.0060°
- Time zone
- America/New_York
Sunrise
06:19 AM
Sunset
07:34 PM
Solar noon
12:57 PM
Sun at 58.8° above horizon
Day length
13h 15m
−2m 33s vs yesterday
Photography light
- Blue hour (morning)
- 05:50 AM – 06:01 AM
- Golden hour (morning)
- 06:19 AM – 06:55 AM
- Golden hour (evening)
- 06:57 PM – 07:34 PM
- Blue hour (evening)
- 07:51 PM – 08:02 PM
Twilight
- Astronomical dawn
- 04:41 AM
- Nautical dawn
- 05:16 AM
- Civil dawn
- 05:50 AM
- Civil dusk
- 08:02 PM
- Nautical dusk
- 08:36 PM
- Astronomical dusk
- 09:12 PM
Sun at solar noon: 58.8° elevation, bearing 180° (S). Times assume a flat horizon at sea level.
How much daylight changes through the year
The difference between the longest and shortest day, by city. Latitude drives almost all of it — near the equator the day barely changes, while Reykjavik swings by most of a day.
| City | Latitude | Longest day | Shortest day | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ReykjavikIceland | 64.1° | 21h 09m | 4h 07m | 17h 02m |
| BerlinGermany | 52.5° | 16h 50m | 7h 39m | 9h 11m |
| LondonUnited Kingdom | 51.5° | 16h 38m | 7h 50m | 8h 49m |
| SeattleUnited States | 47.6° | 15h 59m | 8h 25m | 7h 34m |
| TorontoCanada | 43.7° | 15h 27m | 8h 56m | 6h 31m |
| ChicagoUnited States | 41.9° | 15h 14m | 9h 08m | 6h 06m |
| New YorkUnited States | 40.7° | 15h 06m | 9h 15m | 5h 51m |
| DenverUnited States | 39.7° | 14h 59m | 9h 21m | 5h 38m |
| TokyoJapan | 35.7° | 14h 35m | 9h 44m | 4h 50m |
| Los AngelesUnited States | 34.1° | 14h 25m | 9h 53m | 4h 33m |
| SydneyAustralia | -33.9° | 14h 24m | 9h 54m | 4h 31m |
| PhoenixUnited States | 33.4° | 14h 22m | 9h 56m | 4h 26m |
| AustinUnited States | 30.3° | 14h 06m | 10h 11m | 3h 55m |
| MiamiUnited States | 25.8° | 13h 45m | 10h 32m | 3h 13m |
| DubaiUnited Arab Emirates | 25.2° | 13h 42m | 10h 34m | 3h 08m |
| SingaporeSingapore | 1.4° | 12h 12m | 12h 03m | 9m |
What determines when the sun rises
Two things, and neither is your clock. The first is your latitude, which sets how steeply the sun crosses the horizon. The second is the date, which sets the sun's declination — how far north or south of the equator it sits, swinging between +23.44° and −23.44° over the year.
Your longitude only shifts everything earlier or later, four minutes per degree. That is why cities at the western edge of a time zone get such late sunsets: Chicago and Detroit keep the same clock, but the sun reaches Chicago noticeably later.
The equation of time
Solar noon is rarely at 12:00. Earth's orbit is elliptical and its axis is tilted, so the sun runs up to 16 minutes ahead of clock time in early November and 14 minutes behind in mid-February. This is the equation of time, and it is why the earliest sunset of the year does not fall on the winter solstice.
Why refraction matters
When you watch the sun touch the horizon, it is already geometrically below it. The atmosphere bends its light by about half a degree — roughly the sun's own diameter. Sunrise is conventionally defined as the sun's centre sitting 0.833° below the true horizon, which is what we use.
Frequently asked questions
- How are these sunrise and sunset times calculated?
- From the NOAA solar position algorithm. Given a latitude, longitude and date, the sun's declination and the equation of time determine exactly when it crosses the horizon. Nothing is looked up in a table, so any coordinate on Earth works — including dates centuries in the past or future.
- Why does the sun rise a minute later than another site says?
- Different sites use different refraction constants. We treat sunrise as the moment the sun's centre is 0.833° below the horizon, which accounts for atmospheric refraction and the sun's apparent radius — the standard NOAA convention. Some older calculators use a different value and can differ by several minutes at high latitudes.
- What is the difference between civil, nautical and astronomical twilight?
- They are defined by how far the sun is below the horizon: 6° for civil twilight, 12° for nautical and 18° for astronomical. Civil twilight is bright enough to read outdoors. After astronomical twilight ends, the sky is fully dark. Above roughly 48° latitude, astronomical twilight never ends in midsummer — the sky never gets completely dark.
- When exactly is golden hour?
- Golden hour is when the sun sits between about 6° above and 4° below the horizon, giving warm, soft, directional light. Blue hour follows it, from 4° to 6° below. Near the equator both last barely 20 minutes; in Iceland in summer they can stretch for hours.
- Do these times account for my elevation or the terrain?
- No. All times assume a flat horizon at sea level. Standing on a mountain makes sunrise earlier, and a ridge to the east makes it later. For a rooftop or a valley floor, treat these times as the astronomical reference rather than what you will actually see.