Where does the sun rise? Sunrise and sunset direction through the year
Due east only near the equinoxes: in London the sunrise point swings 80° along the horizon.
Definitions
What golden hour means here
Golden hour is the time when the sun is low enough for warm, soft, directional light, conventionally while it is less than 6° above the horizon.
The figures below take the evening golden hour from the moment the sun drops through 6° to sunset, when its upper edge touches the horizon. Many photographers keep shooting after sunset while the sky still glows, until the sun is 4° below the horizon; the figure in brackets includes that afterglow. The blue hour follows, while the sun is between 4° and 6° below the horizon. Mornings are the mirror image.
The numbers
Golden hour by latitude and season
| Latitude | 21 June | 20 March | 21 December |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0° (equator) | 30 (44) | 27 (40) | 30 (44) |
| 20° N | 32 (47) | 29 (43) | 32 (47) |
| 35° N | 37 (56) | 33 (49) | 39 (56) |
| 45° N | 45 (68) | 39 (57) | 49 (70) |
| 52° N | 55 (84) | 45 (65) | 63 (89) |
| 60° N | 80 (132) | 55 (80) | 129 (166) |
Three patterns stand out. Golden hour is never an hour on the equator. It is shortest around the equinoxes everywhere. And it grows quickly with latitude: at 60° north, around Oslo, Stockholm or Helsinki, the December golden hour lasts more than two hours, because the sun never climbs much above it at all.
The southern hemisphere is the mirror image: swap June and December.
The reason
The angle at which the sun meets the horizon
The sun always crosses the sky at the same rate, 15° an hour around the celestial pole. What differs is the direction of that motion near the horizon. On the equator the sun rises and sets vertically, so dropping 6° takes about 24 minutes plus a few minutes for the size of the disc and refraction. At higher latitudes it slants: at 52° north it sets at an angle of about 38° to the horizon at the equinox, so the same six degrees take nearly twice as long. In winter the path is shallower still, and close to the polar circles the sun can skim along the horizon for hours.
The blue hour behaves the same way: at the equinox it lasts about 8 minutes on the equator, 10 at 35° N, 13 at 52° N and 16 at 60° N.
Planning a shoot
Making the most of it
- Direction: golden-hour light comes from the sunrise or sunset direction, which swings with the seasons. See where the sun rises and sets before choosing a viewpoint.
- Hills and buildings shorten the golden hour: the light ends when the sun drops behind the local skyline, not the sea-level horizon. In a deep valley it can end half an hour early.
- Clouds near the horizon can block the low sun entirely, while high cloud overhead catches colour well after sunset, the best part of the afterglow.
- Polar summers: around midsummer in northern Norway the sun never gets more than a few degrees above the horizon at midnight, and the golden hour lasts all night. See midnight sun and polar night.
The golden hour calculator gives the exact times for any place and date, morning and evening, with blue hour and the sun’s direction.
Keep reading
Related articles
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How long the sun stays up, or down, in Tromsø, Svalbard, Utqiaġvik, Murmansk and Rovaniemi.
Sun elevation and azimuth, explained
The two angles that pin the sun to the sky: what they mean, how they change and how to measure them.