Maps & outdoors
How to Find Sunrise, Sunset and Golden Hour for Any Place
What golden hour, blue hour and the three kinds of twilight actually are, why they change through the year, and how to find the exact times for your location and date.
Updated · 3 min read
Photographers plan shoots around golden hour, hikers need to know when it gets dark, and anyone scheduling an outdoor event wants to know how long the day is. All of these depend on where the sun is relative to the horizon.
The definitions
Sunrise and sunset are the moments when the upper edge of the sun's disk touches the horizon. Because the atmosphere bends light, the sun is actually about 0.83° below the geometric horizon at that moment. Calculators include this correction.
Solar noon is when the sun is highest, which is rarely exactly 12:00 on the clock because of time zones and daylight saving time.
Twilight has three stages after sunset (and mirrored before sunrise), defined by how far the sun's center is below the horizon:
| Stage | Sun below horizon | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Civil twilight | 0° to 6° | Enough light for most outdoor activities |
| Nautical twilight | 6° to 12° | Horizon still visible at sea, bright stars appear |
| Astronomical twilight | 12° to 18° | Sky almost fully dark |
Golden hour has no official definition. A common one: the sun between about 6° above and 4° below the horizon. Light is warm, soft and comes from the side.
Blue hour is when the sun is roughly 4° to 6° below the horizon: the sky turns deep blue while city lights are already on.
Find the times for your place
- Open the sunrise and sunset calculator.
- Pick a city, enter coordinates, or use your current location.
- Choose the date.
- Read sunrise, sunset, day length, all twilight stages and the golden and blue hour windows. Times are shown in the place's local time zone, including daylight saving time.
The day timeline shows the phases as colored bands, and the year chart shows how sunrise and sunset move through the seasons.
Why the times change so much
- Season. Near the June solstice, Berlin has about 16 hours and 50 minutes of daylight; in late December, under 8 hours.
- Latitude. Near the equator, day length barely changes and twilight is short because the sun sets steeply. Far north, the sun sets at a shallow angle, so twilight and golden hour last much longer.
- Polar regions. North of the Arctic Circle the sun doesn't set at all around the June solstice (midnight sun) and doesn't rise around the December solstice.
- Daylight saving time shifts all clock times by an hour but doesn't change the actual day length.
Beyond sunrise and sunset
- To know where the sun will be at a specific moment, for example whether a balcony gets afternoon sun, use the sun position calculator. It shows the sun's height, direction, shadow length and its path across the day.
- For night photography, the moon matters as much as the sun. The moon phase calendar shows illumination and moonrise times.
Practical tips for photographers
- Arrive 20–30 minutes before golden hour starts to set up.
- The best color often comes a few minutes after sunset, when clouds catch light from below the horizon.
- Mountains and buildings to the west end your golden hour early; the calculator assumes a flat horizon.
Frequently asked questions
Why is sunrise not symmetric around noon? Solar noon shifts through the year relative to clock time (the "equation of time"), so mornings and evenings aren't always equally long around 12:00.