Sunrise & Sunset Calculator
Enter a latitude, longitude, date, and your timezone's UTC offset to get sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the total day length — handy for timing a landmark visit around the light.
Sun times
Why sun timing matters for a day trip
A landmark that photographs beautifully at sunset can look flat and washed out at midday, and a viewpoint that's crowded all afternoon is often nearly empty right at sunrise. Knowing the day's light schedule ahead of time lets you build your itinerary around it instead of discovering it by accident.
It's also a practical safety check for a day trip: knowing exactly when the sun sets tells you how much buffer you have to finish the last stop, find parking, and get on the road home before dark.
Frequently Asked Questions
How accurate are these sunrise and sunset times?
The calculator uses the standard solar-position method behind most sunrise/sunset lookups, and it's accurate to within a few minutes for most locations and dates. It doesn't account for local horizon obstructions like mountains or tall buildings, which can delay sunrise or bring sunset forward at a specific viewpoint.
What is "golden hour" and how do I use this for photography?
Golden hour is the roughly hour-long window after sunrise and before sunset when sunlight is warm, soft, and low in the sky — a favorite time to photograph a landmark's exterior. Use the sunrise or sunset time here as your anchor and plan to be in position 20-30 minutes before it.
Why do I need to enter a UTC offset?
Sunrise and sunset are calculated in absolute time and then converted to your local clock using the UTC offset for your timezone. Remember to account for daylight saving time — for example, use -4 for US Eastern Daylight Time in summer and -5 for Eastern Standard Time in winter.
What does it mean if there's no sunrise or sunset at all?
That happens only at high latitudes, inside the Arctic or Antarctic Circle, during the summer or winter months, when the sun stays above or below the horizon for the whole day — the calculator reports "continuous daylight" or "continuous night" in that case rather than a time.
Educational tool only. Times are estimates accurate to within a few minutes and do not account for local terrain or skyline that can shift the visible sunrise or sunset at a specific spot.