Sunrise sunset calculator

Worked example: Denver through 2026

How to use it

1. Click the map or search a place. The tool starts at New York.
2. Read the card: sunrise, sunset, solar noon, and golden hour on the place's local clock, and the day length in hours.
3. Add the place's UTC offset to get local clock time. For New York, subtract 5 hours in winter and 4 in summer.
4. The values are for today's date on your device. Near the poles the day length can read polar day or night instead of hours.

What sunrise and sunset mean

Sunrise and sunset are the moments the top edge of the sun touches the horizon. Because the air bends light and the sun is a disk, not a point, that happens when the sun's center is about 0.833° below the horizon, the standard value NOAA also uses. Solar noon is when the sun crosses the meridian and is highest.

Golden hour here is the evening time when the sun's center sits 6° above the horizon, as SunCalc defines it, a common cue for soft light in photography.

Which clock the times use

The tool looks up the IANA time zone of the point you pick through Open-Meteo, then shows each time on that zone's clock, with daylight saving applied for today's date. The zone name appears under the card. If the lookup fails, the times fall back to UTC and the card says so.

For the offset and the next clock change of a place, use the time zone finder.

Accuracy

SunCalc implements standard astronomical formulas for the sun's position. Bigger differences from what you see come from the ground: mountains and buildings hide the sun, and unusual refraction shifts it. Near the poles the sun can stay up or down all day, and the tool then shows polar day or night instead of times. The sunrise guide has the full method.

Planning around daylight

Photographers plan around golden hour and solar noon. Hikers check sunset to be off a trail before dark. Gardeners compare day length through the year. For local clock times by month at every state capital, with daylight saving changes applied, the daylight pages are faster than converting from UTC by hand.