Sun position in Anchorage

Sun times in Anchorage on 3 November 2026

Times are computed for 61.2181°, -149.9003° and refreshed every day. For any other date, an exact azimuth or a shadow drawn on the map, open the interactive sun position map for Anchorage.

The sun’s path over Anchorage

How high the sun stands and where, from sunrise to sunset: today, at both solstices and at the equinox. The higher a curve climbs, the higher the sun; where a curve meets the bottom line, the sun rises or sets at that compass bearing.

The sun through the year in Anchorage

At the June solstice the midday sun reaches 52.2° above the horizon in Anchorage and the day lasts 19 h 22 min. At the December solstice the sun climbs only to 5.3° and the day shrinks to 5 h 27 min. That difference is what decides whether a garden, a window or a solar array sees the sun in winter. The noon shadow column gives the length of the shadow of anything one metre tall.

Anchorage through 2026 at a glance

• At solar noon the sun in Anchorage always stands due south, so the south side of a building, a garden or a roof is the one that gets the sun.
• White nights: from 7 June to 3 July the sun sets but never sinks more than 6° below the horizon, so it stays light enough to read outdoors all night.
• From 17 April to 23 August the sky over Anchorage never gets fully dark: the sun stays less than 18° below the horizon all night, so there is no true astronomical night.
• The earliest sunset is on 16 December, 5 days before the shortest day (21 December), and the latest sunrise on 26 December, 5 days after it. Solar noon drifts through the year, so the darkest afternoon and the darkest morning do not fall on the shortest day.
• The longest day in Anchorage is 13 h 55 min longer than the shortest, and around the equinoxes the days grow or shrink by up to 5.8 minutes a day.

The winter solstice 2026: the moment, and the shortest and the longest day, city by city →

When the days start getting longer: the earliest sunset, the latest sunrise and lighter evenings, city by city →

Planning around the sun in Anchorage

Solar panels

At 61.2° N a fixed array facing due south collects the most over a year at a tilt of about 50°. Use the solar panel angle calculator with the coordinates 61.2181°, -149.9003° for the exact optimum, the seasonal optima and the loss from an east or west facing roof.

Buying a flat or a plot

At the December solstice the noon sun in Anchorage sits 5.3° above the horizon, so every obstacle casts a shadow 10.7 times its own height at midday. Check what stands to the south before you commit: place the building on the map and read the shaded hours for 21 December.

Photography

Golden hour runs 08:34–09:48 in the morning and 15:38–16:52 in the evening today, and the sun sets toward WSW (238°). The golden hour calculator gives the same windows for any date, and the map’s alignment finder shows the days when the setting sun lines up with a street.

More on planning around the sun: which way a house, garden or balcony should face, how long golden hour lasts and why the earliest sunset comes before the shortest day.

Other cities

Near Anchorage

• Sun position in WhitehorseCanada
• Sun position in YellowknifeCanada
• Sun position in VancouverCanada
• Sun position in VictoriaCanada

On the same latitude

Anchorage lies at 61.2° N. On the same parallel the longest and the shortest day last just as long and the noon sun climbs just as high, whatever the clocks say there:

• Sun position in WhitehorseCanada • 60.7° N
• Sun position in BergenNorway • 60.4° N
• Sun position in HelsinkiFinland • 60.2° N
• Sun position in Saint PetersburgRussia • 59.9° N

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helpQuestions

Sun questions about Anchorage