Sun

Golden Hour Calculator

Exact morning and evening golden hour and blue hour times for any date and place, with sunrise and sunset anchors.

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Enter a date and location, then select Calculate times.

About this calculator

Times come from NOAA's solar equations, computed entirely in your browser, with the same solar series that drives sunrise tables; accuracy is typically 1 to 2 minutes, lower at very high latitudes where the sun crosses each altitude at a shallow angle. Golden hour and blue hour are photographic conventions, not official almanac quantities: this tool uses the common definitions of golden hour as the sun between 4 degrees below and 6 degrees above the horizon, and blue hour as the sun between 8 and 4 degrees below it. Near the poles a band can be absent, last all day, or merge its morning and evening windows into one; the tool reports those states in words instead of inventing times. Results are for planning and education, not navigation.