๐ Sun position today
Sunrise and sunset mark the moments the sun's upper edge crosses the horizon, and together they define the length of your day. This page shows today's sunrise and sunset times, the total daylight duration, and the twilight phases for your exact location โ information that depends entirely on your latitude and the time of year.
The Earth's axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees relative to its orbit around the sun. As the planet travels through the year, this tilt points each hemisphere alternately toward and away from the sun. When your hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, days are long and the sun climbs high; when tilted away, days are short. This produces the seasons and the changing sunrise and sunset times.
The further you are from the equator, the more day length varies across the year. At the equator, day and night stay close to 12 hours each all year. Near the poles, summer brings the midnight sun, when the sun never sets, and winter brings polar night, when it never rises. At mid-latitudes the difference between the longest and shortest day can be several hours.
The sky is not instantly dark at sunset. Civil twilight, the brightest phase, lasts until the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon; nautical twilight until 12 degrees; and astronomical twilight until 18 degrees, after which the sky is fully dark. The 'golden hour' just after sunrise and before sunset gives the soft, warm, low-angle light prized by photographers, because sunlight travels through more atmosphere and scatters the blue away.
Sunrise and sunset times are computed from your latitude and longitude, the date, and the geometry of the Earth-sun system, with a small correction for atmospheric refraction, which lifts the sun's apparent position and lets you see it slightly before it has truly risen and after it has truly set. The figures here are localized to your timezone.
Because sunrise and sunset are defined by the sun's upper edge, not its centre, and because the atmosphere bends light to lift the sun's apparent position. Together these make the day slightly longer than 12 hours even at the equinox.
It is the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low and its light is soft, warm and directional. Photographers prize it because the harsh overhead light and shadows of midday are absent.
Near the poles, the axial tilt keeps that hemisphere pointed toward the sun for weeks around the summer solstice, so the sun stays above the horizon all day โ the midnight sun.
Slightly. From a high vantage point you can see the sun a little earlier and later because your horizon is lower, which is one reason mountaintops catch the first and last light.