Sunrise Sunset

Sunset and sunrise times

Check sunrise, sunset, dusk and dawn times for any location in the world!

What exactly are the sunrise and sunset?

It's important to note that both sunrise and sunset are 'instants'. The time range during which the day becomes night or vice versa is called twilight. We can distinguish between the morning twilight, that happens between dawn and sunrise and the evening twilight, that happens between sunset and dusk each day. Duration of twilight actually depends on our position on Earth and date of year. For example at Arctic and Antarctic latitudes, on winter, night never gets completely dark.

The sunrise is the exact instant at which the upper edge of the Sun becomes visible over the eastern horizon, in the morning. It's also called sun up.

With sunset we refer to the instant when the trailing edge of the Sun stops being visible and disappears below the western horizon in the evening.

Daylength

As you may have noticed, daylength or length of daytime varies over the year. In the north hemisphere, summer days are longer while winter days are shorter and dusk happens very early. Daylength also changes depending on latitude and, during winter, the higher the latitude, the shorter the days.

Our tools will let you know, accurately, how long the daytime of a given day is going to be on any place of the world and how the daylength evolves during the year.

As a curiosity, because of the decreasing rotation speed of the Earth, days keep getting a bit longer over time. The average day, a century ago, was 1.7 milliseconds shorter than today.

Who may need to check sunrise and sunset times