Sun Position Calculator
Pick a place, date and time and get the sun's elevation and compass direction, plus sunrise, sunset, solar noon and day length in local time, with a chart of the sun's path that day.
Your browser asks before sharing your position. Coordinates and typed text are sent only to the lookup services named on the result; this site stores nothing.
How to find the sun's position
- Pick a place. Use your location or type an address, city or coordinates. The local time zone is looked up for you.
- Set the date and time. It starts at the current local time there; change either, or press Now.
- Read elevation and azimuth. How high the sun is above the horizon and its compass direction from true north.
- Read the day. Sunrise, solar noon, sunset, day length and a chart of the sun's height through the day.
10 reasons to look up the sun's position
Planning a photo at golden hour
See when the sun sits low in the direction your subject faces.
Placing solar panels
Check the sun's noon height in winter and summer for a roof or ground mount.
Choosing a garden bed's spot
See how high the sun gets and where it sets, before planting sun-loving crops in a shaded yard.
Checking glare on a commute
Find the dates and times the sun sits low along a road's direction.
Positioning a patio umbrella or shade sail
Shadow direction and length for an afternoon gathering.
Buying a house with good light
See where the sun is at breakfast time in December for the listing's windows.
Planning a hike's finish before dark
Sunset time and day length for a date and place.
Astronomy and science lessons
Declination and the equation of time, worked from NOAA's equations.
Prayer or ritual times that depend on the sun
Solar noon and sunset as a starting point; follow your own tradition's rules for the times themselves.
Drone and film shoots abroad
Local-time sunrise and sun direction for a location you have never visited.
Where the numbers come from
The calculations follow the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory solar calculator spreadsheets, which implement equations from Jean Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms: the sun's geometric mean longitude and anomaly, the equation of centre, apparent longitude, obliquity, declination and the equation of time. From those, the page computes the hour angle, the solar zenith and elevation, and the azimuth. Sunrise and sunset use a zenith of 90.833°, NOAA's 0.833° allowance for atmospheric refraction, and the elevation shown is corrected with NOAA's banded refraction model.
NOAA states that its sunrise and sunset results are theoretically accurate to within a minute between ±72° latitude and within 10 minutes beyond it, and that its spreadsheets are valid for 1901-2099, which is the date range this page accepts. NOAA also notes that the calculator is no longer actively maintained. The place's time zone comes from the Open-Meteo API so times are shown in local time with daylight saving applied; the sun calculation itself runs in your browser. As a check, the page's sunrise and sunset for New York on 16 October 2026 agree with Open-Meteo's own figures to within a minute.
Limits: real sunrise depends on your horizon — hills, buildings and your height above the ground move it by minutes — and on the weather's effect on refraction. Azimuth is from true north, not magnetic north. NOAA says its results are for research and recreational use and cannot be certified for legal purposes.
Sources
- NOAA GML: Solar calculation details
- NOAA Solar Calculator
- Open-Meteo — time zone for the place
Frequently asked questions
What is the sun's elevation angle?
Its height above the horizon in degrees: 0° on the horizon, 90° directly overhead, negative when it is below the horizon.
What is solar azimuth?
The sun's compass direction, in degrees clockwise from true north: 90° is due east, 180° due south, 270° due west.
What is solar noon?
The moment the sun is highest in the sky that day. It is rarely exactly 12:00 because of time zones, daylight saving and the equation of time.
How accurate are the sunrise and sunset times?
NOAA gives about one minute between 72° north and south and about 10 minutes nearer the poles, for a flat sea-level horizon.
How long is a shadow?
An upright object's shadow is its height divided by the tangent of the sun's elevation. The page shows it for a 1-unit object; multiply by your object's height.
Does it handle daylight saving time?
Yes. Times use the place's own time zone, so daylight saving is applied on the dates it is in force.
Does it work near the poles?
Yes. When the sun does not rise or set, the page says 'polar night' or 'midnight sun' instead of giving a time.
Related tools
Distance to Horizon Calculator
Enter your eye height and get how far away the horizon is, with and without standard atmospheric refraction, plus how far you can see a tall object and how much of it the curve hides.
Spherical-Earth horizon formula d = √(2Rh + h²), refraction R′ = 7R/6 (A. T. Young)
Sunrise Sunset Calculator
Get sunrise, sunset, dawn, dusk, solar noon and day length for every day of any month at any place, in its local time with daylight saving, and download the table.
NOAA solar calculation equations; IANA tz database
Day and Night Map
See where on Earth it is day, twilight and night right now or at any time, with the points where the sun and moon are overhead, and check the light at any place.
NOAA solar equations; Schlyter lunar method
Time Zone Finder
Type any address or use your location and get its IANA time zone, current local time, UTC offset, whether daylight saving time is in effect, and the date of the next clock change.
Time zone from Open-Meteo; rules from the IANA tz database in your browser
Time Difference Calculator
Compare the time in several cities at once, see how many hours ahead or behind each one is, convert a time between them and find the hours that suit everyone.
IANA tz database in your browser; Open-Meteo time zone lookup
US Time Zone Map
A map of US time zones with the current time in each, their abbreviations and UTC offsets, and which areas skip daylight saving time — hover any area for its local clock.
timezone-boundary-builder (OpenStreetMap); IANA tz database