Updated November 2026 · Free calculator
For photographers in a city they don't know yet: pick the city and when you'll shoot.
Everything below updates with the city and date you picked at the top. Times are local to the city, worked out on this page from the sun's position, for a flat horizon.
Golden hour usually lasts about 40 to 90 minutes in the evening, not exactly 60. Near the equator it's closer to 40 minutes; in London or Edinburgh in December it runs past 85. It's longest at high latitudes and around the solstices, when the sun sets at a shallow angle.
The term has no official definition. timeanddate's golden hour guide says the warm light is most likely when the sun is between about 6° above and 6° below the horizon, and gives rough lengths: about 50 minutes in Quito, about an hour around 40° north in March, and over 90 minutes near 60° north. On this page golden hour runs from 6° above the horizon to 4° below, the point where timeanddate's blue hour guide says the blue takes over (4° to 8° below). Sunset falls inside it, which is why the warm light outlasts the sun.
Golden hour is a sun angle, not a clock time, so the same "hour" is about 44 minutes in Singapore in December and nearly two hours in Edinburgh.
Minutes of evening golden hour (sun 6° above to 4° below the horizon), worked out on this page for 2026. Notice how little the tropics change, and how much the north does.
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Calculated with a standard solar position formula, accurate to about a minute. Flat horizon; hills and buildings end it sooner.
Asterfold does all three in one app. Its Light Path Studio draws the sun's real path for any place and date, coloured by golden hour, blue hour and twilight, and it's calculated on your iPhone so it works offline. You can save the exact spot you shoot from, pick your lens from 14 mm to 200 mm, and see the dates this year when the sun sets inside your frame.
An illustration, not a real trip.
4:15 p.m., early November. You check the window at the hotel: golden starts just before five, sunset about 5:35. The viewpoint is a 25-minute walk uphill.
4:50 p.m. You're there and set up. The light warms up right on time across the rooftops.
5:36 p.m. The sun goes. Half the crowd leaves. You don't.
6:00 p.m. The river turns blue, the bridge lights come on, and that's the frame you keep.
Both, roughly. The evening golden hour starts when the sun is about 6° above the horizon and its warm glow lasts a little past sunset. In the morning it's the mirror image, starting just before sunrise.
Near the equator the sun drops almost straight down, so it passes through the low angles quickly. Farther from the equator it sets at a slant and spends longer near the horizon.
Yes. Away from the tropics it's longest around the solstices and shortest around the equinoxes, because the sun's path meets the horizon at a shallower angle in midsummer and midwinter.
It's accurate to about a minute for a flat horizon at the city center. Hills, buildings and trees can end the light sooner, and clouds decide whether it's golden at all.
Yes. Free includes the Light Path Studio, aiming and plans for 2 viewpoints, the field journal, tonight's ratings and the next 3 evenings. Asterfold Plus is an optional subscription or one-time Lifetime purchase for unlimited viewpoints, sky alerts and the full 10-day outlook.
Times on this page assume a flat horizon at the city center, and Asterfold makes the same assumption: its listing says hills, buildings and trees are not modelled. Neither this page nor the app can promise colour; Asterfold's sunset ratings are a rule-of-thumb estimate, not a probability. Who should pick something else: if you only ever need tonight's sunset time for one city, your phone's weather app already shows it.
Light Path Studio, aiming and plans for 2 viewpoints, and tonight's ratings are free in Asterfold.