Where does the sun rise? Sunrise and sunset direction through the year

exploreOne city

Sunrise and sunset in London

On the longest day the sun rises at a bearing of 49°, north-east, and sets at 311°, north-west, after 16 hours and 38 minutes. On the shortest day it rises at 128° and sets at 232°, less than eight hours later.

publicEvery latitude

Sunrise and sunset bearings by latitude

The swing depends almost entirely on latitude. On the equator the sunrise point moves 23° either side of east over the year; at 60° north it moves 55° to the north and 50° to the south.

Notice that even at the equinox the sun rises a little north of east and sets a little north of west. Sunrise is defined by the top of the sun’s disc, lifted by refraction, so the sun counts as risen while its centre is still 0.83° below the horizon. Below the horizon its path lies slightly north of the east point, because the path climbs towards the south, so the equinox sunrise appears a little north of due east. The effect grows with latitude, where the path meets the horizon at a shallower angle.

In the southern hemisphere the picture is mirrored: in Sydney the June sun rises at 62° and sets at 298°, both north of the east–west line, while in December it rises at 119° and sets at 241°.

functionsThe geometry

Why the sunrise point swings

The sun moves along a circle in the sky parallel to the celestial equator, at the declination of the day. Where that circle crosses the horizon is the sunrise point. Ignoring refraction, the bearing follows from one line of spherical trigonometry: the cosine of the sunrise azimuth equals the sine of the declination divided by the cosine of the latitude. On the equator the denominator is 1, so the swing equals the declination, ±23.4°. At higher latitudes the cosine shrinks and the swing grows, until beyond the Arctic Circle the summer sun’s circle no longer meets the horizon at all and the midnight sun begins.

timelineFast and slow

Moving fast at the equinox, standing still at the solstice

The sunrise point does not move at an even pace. Around the March and September equinoxes it races along the horizon: in London it shifts 0.6° a day, more than the width of the sun itself, so on consecutive mornings the sun comes up a full disc further along. Around the solstices it slows to almost nothing, about 0.004° a day in London in late June, and appears to stand still for a week. That is where the word comes from: solstitium, the sun standing still.

photo_cameraUsing it

Lining things up with the rising sun

• Photography: to catch the sun rising behind a landmark, you need the date when the sunrise bearing matches the line from your camera to the landmark. The map draws the sunrise line for any date; move the timeline until it passes through your subject.
• Old alignments: Stonehenge faces the midsummer sunrise, and in Manhattan the setting sun lines up with the street grid on a few evenings in late May and mid-July, “Manhattanhenge”.
• Homes: an east-north-east window gets the June sunrise and no December sunrise at all. See which way a house should face.

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