Day and night world map

How to read the map

The light part of the map is where the Sun is above the horizon. The darkest part is full night. Between them run three bands of twilight, when the Sun has set but the sky is not yet dark:

• Civil twilight: the Sun is less than 6° below the horizon. There is still enough light to be outdoors without lamps.
• Nautical twilight: between 6° and 12° below. The horizon at sea can still be made out and the brightest stars are visible.
• Astronomical twilight: between 12° and 18° below. To the eye the sky is dark, but the faintest stars are still washed out.

The yellow disc marks the one point on Earth where the Sun is straight overhead at this moment, and the pale disc the point where the Moon is. Both travel westward and go round the world about once a day. Orange and red dots are cities where the Sun is rising or setting right now; click a city, or any point of the map, to see its sunrise and sunset times.

Why the edge of the night changes shape

The Earth is tilted 23.4° against its orbit, so through the year the Sun stands overhead further north or further south, and the border between day and night tilts with it.

At the two equinoxes, in March and September, the Sun is overhead at the equator. The border runs straight from pole to pole, and day and night last about twelve hours everywhere. Towards the June solstice the Sun moves north: on the map the night sinks into a bowl that no longer reaches the Arctic, where the Sun does not set at all (the midnight sun), while around the South Pole it does not rise (the polar night). In December the picture is turned upside down.

The buttons under the map jump to the next equinoxes and solstices. Press “Play 24 hours” on any of them to watch one full turn of the Earth on that day.

Night does not fall at the same speed everywhere

Look at how wide the twilight bands are. Near the equator they are narrow: the Sun drops almost straight down and it is dark little more than an hour after sunset. Towards the poles the Sun sinks at a slant and the bands widen. In early summer, from about the latitude of Paris and Vancouver northwards, the darkest band never arrives: twilight lasts all night.

Questions and Answers

More about day length

• When is the shortest day of the year?
• Why the shortest day is not the day with the earliest sunset
• Glossary of sunrise and sunset terms
• Sunrise and sunset times by country