Daylight / 01
Sunrise and Sunset Times
See sunrise, sunset, solar noon, day length, the three twilights, golden hour, and blue hour for a city or your own location, on today's date or any other.
Sunrise and Sunset Times: TOEA works out where the sun is through the day with the NOAA solar position formulas, finds when it crosses the horizon and the twilight angles, and shows the times in the place's own time zone, daylight saving included. Runs 100% locally in your browser with zero server file uploads.
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- Time & calendar tools
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Place: London, United Kingdom · 51.51° N, 0.13° W · Europe/London
Times are local to the place (Europe/London). Calculated in your browser with the NOAA solar position formulas; nothing is sent anywhere.
What sunrise and sunset measure
Sunrise and sunset are the moments the top edge of the sun touches a level horizon. The air bends sunlight over the horizon by about half a degree, and the sun's disc is about half a degree across, so the calculation uses the sun's centre at -0.833°. That is why the day is a few minutes longer than twelve hours at the equinoxes.
Printed tables assume a flat, sea-level horizon and average air. A hill, a row of buildings, or unusual temperature near the ground can shift what you see by several minutes, so treat the times as accurate to about a minute for the sky and less for your street.
Twilight, golden hour, and blue hour
Twilight is split by how far the sun is below the horizon: civil down to 6°, nautical to 12°, astronomical to 18°. Civil dusk is roughly when street lights and headlights become necessary; after astronomical dusk the sky is as dark as it gets. In summer at high latitudes the sun never sinks to 18°, and the table says so.
Golden hour, with the sun low between 6° above and 4° below the horizon, gives warm, soft side light; blue hour, 4° to 6° below, gives the deep blue sky photographers use for city scenes. Near the equator both are short; near the poles they can last for hours.
Seasons, time zones, and the far north
Solar noon is rarely 12:00: it moves with your position inside the time zone, daylight saving time, and the equation of time, which shifts it by up to about 16 minutes over the year. Earliest sunset and latest sunrise therefore do not fall on the shortest day.
Above the Arctic Circle the sun can stay up all day in summer and not rise at all in winter; in Tromsø, polar night runs from late November to mid-January. For working indoors on short or grey days, the lights-on reminder turns the same calculation into a reminder.
How to use it
- Pick a city, use your location, or type coordinates.
- Keep today's date or choose another.
- Read the times, the twilight table, and the day's light timeline.
Privacy & limitations
Everything is calculated in your browser. Your location, if you share it, is used on this page and never sent anywhere.
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Frequently asked questions
How accurate are the times?
Within a minute or so of published tables for most places. Real sunrise can differ by a few minutes because refraction depends on the weather, and hills, buildings, or a sea horizon change when the sun actually appears.
What are civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight?
The periods while the sun is up to 6°, 12°, and 18° below the horizon. In civil twilight you can usually be outside without lights; by the end of astronomical twilight the sky is fully dark.
How are golden hour and blue hour defined here?
Golden hour is the sun between 6° above and 4° below the horizon; blue hour is between 4° and 6° below. Photographers use slightly different limits, so treat them as a guide.
Why does it say the sun does not rise, or does not set?
Far enough north or south, the sun stays below the horizon for part of the winter (polar night) and above it for part of the summer (midnight sun). The page says so instead of giving times.
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