Orange line — the sun right now
The thick orange ray points at the current sun azimuth. The label shows the compass bearing and how high the sun stands above the horizon.
The tool
Sun position for any place, any date, any minute
SunPosition.org shows where the sun is in the sky — and where it will be — for any point on Earth. Drop the pin on a roof, a plot of land, a hotel balcony or a photo location and the map draws the sun azimuth, the sun altitude (its elevation angle), the full sun path for that day and the shadow every object will cast. The timeline at the bottom scrubs through the day or the whole year, so you can watch the light move instead of reading a table of numbers.
Everything is computed in your browser from astronomical formulas, so it works for every date between 1900 and 2100, for every latitude, and it keeps working offline once the page is loaded. Nothing about your location is sent to a server unless you use the search box.
Map legend
How to read the map
Dashed lines — sunrise and sunset
Yellow marks the sunrise direction, red the sunset direction. They swing dramatically between June and December, which is exactly what a plot of land buyer needs to see.
Curved arc — the sun path
The arc is the whole day's sun path: distance from the pin encodes altitude, so a tight arc means a high summer sun and a wide arc a low winter sun. Faint dashed arcs are the two solstices.
Grey line — the shadow
The grey ray is the shadow direction and length for the object height you enter. Place an obstacle to project the shadow of a building or a tree onto the map.
Use cases
What people use it for
Buying or building a house
The single most expensive mistake when buying a plot is a north-facing garden or a neighbour's roof that swallows the winter sun. Put the pin on the plot, switch to the Building tab and read the sunlight hours on the north, east, south and west facades, then place the neighbouring building as an obstacle and see exactly which hours it steals on 21 December. The tool also gives the clear distance you would need for an unshaded winter noon — a number worth checking before you sign anything.
Sizing and aiming solar panels
The Solar PV tab finds the tilt and azimuth that collect the most energy at your coordinates, separately for the whole year, for the summer half and for the winter half. It then estimates annual irradiation on your chosen plane and the yield of an array of a given size, so you can compare a 15° garage roof with a 40° south roof in seconds. See the solar panel angle guide for the reasoning behind the numbers.
Photography and film
Golden hour, blue hour and astronomical night are listed with exact start and end times, and the alignment finder tells you the dates when the rising or setting sun lines up with a street, a valley or a window at a chosen bearing — the trick behind every Manhattanhenge-style photograph. More in the golden hour guide.
Gardening, terraces and awnings
Sunlight hours decide what will grow where. Check the sun hours for a spot in March, June and September, then look at the shadow length at 09:00 and 17:00 to place a greenhouse, a pergola or a seating area where the light actually is.
Glossary
Understanding the numbers
- Azimuth
- The compass direction of the sun, measured clockwise from true north: 0° is north, 90° east, 180° south, 270° west. Note that it is true north, not magnetic north — a compass needle can be off by more than 10° depending on where you are.
- Altitude (elevation)
- The angle of the sun above the horizon, also called the sun elevation or solar elevation angle: 0° at sunrise, rising to a maximum at solar noon. Negative values mean the sun is below the horizon, which is how twilight is defined.
- Solar noon
- The moment the sun crosses the local meridian and stands at its highest. It is rarely 12:00 on the clock: time zones, daylight saving and the equation of time shift it by up to an hour and a half.
- Declination
- The latitude where the sun is directly overhead on that date, swinging between +23.44° in June and −23.44° in December. It is what makes the seasons.
- Equation of time
- The difference between clock time and true solar time caused by the Earth's elliptical orbit and axial tilt, between about −14 and +16 minutes over the year. It is why the earliest sunset is not on the shortest day.
- Golden hour and blue hour
- Golden hour runs while the sun is between the horizon and roughly 6° up; blue hour is the twilight between about 4° and 6° below the horizon. Near the poles both can last for hours.
- Shadow ratio
- Shadow length divided by object height, equal to 1/tan(altitude). At a 45° sun the ratio is 1.0, at 30° it is 1.73, at 20° it is 2.75 and at 10° it is 5.7.
More tools
Related tools
- Sun path diagramHow the sun's arc changes with latitude and season
- Solar panel angleOptimal tilt and azimuth, month by month
- Shadow length calculatorShadow from height and sun altitude, and back again
- Golden hour timesGolden hour, blue hour and twilight explained
- Sunrise & sunsetWhy the earliest sunset is not the shortest day
- About & methodThe formulas, the accuracy and the data sources
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is the sun position right now?
The sun position is described by two angles: azimuth, the compass direction of the sun measured clockwise from true north, and altitude (also called elevation), the height of the sun above the horizon. Open the map, keep the time on Now, and both values are shown for your exact location and updated every second.
How do I find the sun azimuth for my address?
Search for the address or drag the pin to the roof, plot or window you care about. The orange line on the map points at the current sun azimuth, and the panel shows the numeric value together with the compass point, for example 143 degrees SE.
How long is a shadow at a given sun angle?
Shadow length equals object height divided by the tangent of the sun altitude. At 45 degrees the shadow equals the height, at 30 degrees it is 1.73 times the height and at 15 degrees it is 3.7 times the height. The shadow length calculator does it for a date and a place as well.
What angle should solar panels be?
For a fixed array the yearly optimum is usually a tilt close to your latitude minus 10 to 15 degrees, facing the equator: south in the northern hemisphere, north in the southern hemisphere. The Solar PV tab computes the exact optimum for your coordinates, plus separate summer and winter optima.
Will a building or tree shade my plot in winter?
Place an obstacle on the map, enter its height, and the tool compares the elevation it blocks with the sun altitude through the day. It reports the shaded hours today, on 21 June and on 21 December, and the clear distance you would need at winter noon.
How accurate are the calculations?
Sun position is computed with the standard low-precision solar series: better than 0.01 degrees for the sun, about a minute for sunrise and sunset at mid latitudes, and roughly 0.05 degrees for the moon. A hilly horizon at your location matters far more than that residual error.
Which time zone are the times shown in?
By default your device time zone. The selector in the timeline switches to the zone estimated from the pin longitude, to true local solar time, or to UTC, which is useful when planning a shoot abroad or reading an astronomical almanac.