EpochLab

Golden Hour Calculator

When is the golden hour?

The two windows a day when the sun is low and the light is warm — with the exact start and end, and how long you actually get, which near the equator is not an hour.

Questions people ask

The things that come up about golden hour calculators, answered plainly.

When exactly is the golden hour?

There is no formal definition; the working one is when the sun is between about -4° and +6° of altitude — from shortly before sunrise until it is a little way up, and the mirror of that in the evening. That is the convention this page uses.

Why is it not an hour long?

Because it depends on how steeply the sun climbs. At the equator the sun rises almost vertically and the window is 20 to 25 minutes; at 60° north in midsummer it can last several hours, and around the solstice it can merge with the blue hour entirely.

Related tools

Sunrise, sunset, the golden hour and the phase of the moon, anywhere on Earth.

Blue Hour CalculatorThe window before dawn and after dusk when the sky is deep blue and lit buildings balance it — the sun between -6° and -4°, twice a day.
Sunrise CalculatorSunrise for any place and date, with the twilights before it, the bearing the sun comes up on, and how much earlier or later it is than yesterday.
Sunset CalculatorSunset for any place and date, the twilight that follows, the bearing it goes down on, and how long you have before it is properly dark.
Day Length CalculatorHours of daylight for any place and date, how much it changed since yesterday, and the longest and shortest days of that year at that latitude.

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