How this works
- Sunrise and sunsetuse the sun’s top edge on a flat, open horizon, with standard atmospheric refraction.
- Golden hour:there’s no official definition. We use a common photographers’ one: the sun between 6° above and 4° below the horizon.
- Blue hour: the sun between 4° and 8° below the horizon, when the blue is strongest.
- Moon phase names: new, first quarter, full, and last quarter name the calendar day on which that exact moment falls; the days between are crescent or gibbous.
- Accuracy:about a minute for an open horizon. Hills, trees, and buildings change what you’ll see.
- Time zones: times show on your clock. When the place keeps a different time, its own time follows in brackets.
- Privacy: everything is worked out on your device. No location is sent anywhere.
Sources & last checked
- SunCalc 2.0.2 (BSD-2-Clause license) (opens in a new tab)
The sun and moon math, run in your browser. License text: /data/golden-hour/suncalc-license.txt
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- Wikipedia: Blue hour (opens in a new tab)
The blue-hour definition (sun 4° to 8° below the horizon)
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- U.S. Naval Observatory, Astronomical Applications (opens in a new tab)
Sun, moon, and phase tables we test our times against
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Source: SunCalc 2.0.2 (BSD-2-Clause license), Wikipedia: Blue hour, U.S. Naval Observatory, Astronomical Applicationslast checked
Every source we use is on the Credits page.
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About this tool
Golden hour, sun and moon shows the day’s light for any place in a few seconds: sunrise and sunset, the warm golden hour, the deep blue hour, how long the day is, and when the moon rises and sets, with its phase and how much of it is lit. Pick a trailhead, a viewpoint, or a town, choose a date, and plan your shot or your start. It begins with your Basecamp town if you’ve set one, and all the math runs on your own device, so no location is sent anywhere. Photographers use it to catch the best light, hikers use it to plan an early start or a safe finish, and night-sky watchers use it to find a dark, moonless evening. There’s no official definition of golden or blue hour, so we tell you exactly which one we use. Times are for an open horizon. Mountains, trees, and valleys bring darkness sooner, so give yourself a margin.