Sun and moon times, golden hour and moon phase

The golden hour is the period soon after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low and the light is warm and soft — ideal for photography. The blue hour is the dusk and dawn twilight just before sunrise and after sunset, when the sky turns a deep blue. This tool shows the golden-hour times for your location each day.

At high latitudes in summer the sun barely dips below the horizon. “White nights” means it never gets fully dark — civil twilight lasts all night, as in St. Petersburg in June. Closer to the poles the sun does not set at all (polar day), and in winter it does not rise (polar night). The tool shows a banner whenever one of these applies.

Times are computed with the well-established SunCalc astronomy library and are accurate to about a minute for sunrise, sunset and the moon. They are based on the geometry of the sun and moon, so local terrain such as mountains on your horizon can shift the moment you actually see the sun.

Only the map tiles do. All the sun and moon calculations run in your browser, so once the page has loaded the times keep working for any location and date even without a connection.

The tool shows today by default. The map and time slider let you explore how the sun and moon move through the current day; the cards reflect today’s sunrise, sunset and moon for the place you have selected.