This tool tells you the compass direction of sunrise and sunset for any date and place on Earth. Landscape, architecture, and travel photographers use it to pre-visualise where the sun will break the horizon and to align a composition with golden-hour light before they ever arrive on location.
The declination-and-azimuth method
The calculation has two parts: the sun’s declination for the date, and the azimuth of the sun when it sits on the horizon at that declination and latitude.
A compact, planning-grade declination model is:
N = day of year (Jan 1 = 1)
delta = -23.44 * cos( 360/365 * (N + 10) ) (degrees)This puts the winter solstice near -23.44 and the summer solstice near +23.44,
matching the real tilt of Earth’s axis.
The azimuth of the sun at a level horizon (altitude = 0) comes from the standard spherical-astronomy relation:
cos(A) = sin(delta) / cos(latitude)A is the azimuth of sunrise measured from true north. Sunset is the
mirror image: 360 - A. The formula assumes a flat, unobstructed horizon at sea
level.
Worked example
In London (lat ~51.5 degrees N) at the June solstice, declination is about +23.4.
Then cos(A) = sin(23.4) / cos(51.5) = 0.397 / 0.623 = 0.638, giving
A ~= 50.4 degrees — a sunrise in the north-east, with sunset mirrored at
about 309.6 degrees in the north-west. At the December solstice the bearings
swing the opposite way, with the sun rising well south of east.
Notes and limits
- Positive latitude is north, negative is south. Positive longitude is east.
- Results are for a sea-level horizon. Mountains or buildings raise the visible horizon and shift the apparent rise point.
- Atmospheric refraction lifts the sun by roughly half a degree at the horizon, which is ignored here; the planning bearing is still accurate to about a degree.
- All computation happens locally in your browser — no location data is uploaded.
How the bearing swings through the year
Because declination oscillates between roughly +23.44 (June solstice) and -23.44
(December solstice), the sunrise point sweeps across a fixed arc of the horizon that
widens with latitude. The table gives the sunrise azimuth (degrees from true north)
at the two solstices and the equinoxes for three representative latitudes:
| Latitude | Dec solstice | Equinox | Jun solstice | Total swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0° (equator) | ~113° | 90° | ~67° | ~46° |
| 40° N | ~120° | 90° | ~60° | ~60° |
| 60° N | ~132° | 90° | ~48° | ~84° |
At the equator the sun barely strays from due east; at 60° N the summer sunrise is almost 42° north of east. This is why “the sun rises in the east” is only strictly true twice a year, and why photographers at high latitude must re-plan a shot every few weeks as the rise point marches along the horizon.
Practical uses beyond photography
- Solar and architecture: predicting where low morning and evening sun will strike a facade, a solar panel, or a window helps with glare, shading and passive-heating design.
- Manhattanhenge-style alignments: knowing the sunset azimuth tells you which days the sun will line up with a straight street or a doorway.
- Navigation and surveying: the sun’s bearing at a known time is a classic way to find true north without a magnetic compass.
Field workflow for photographers
A practical routine that turns the bearing into a composition: compute the sunrise azimuth the night before, open your phone’s compass app (set to true north), stand at the shooting position and find the bearing on the horizon. Whatever landmark sits under that bearing — a ridge line, a building gap, a jetty — is where the sun will break. Then check the sweep: over the first hour after sunrise the sun moves noticeably along and above the horizon, so a composition that depends on the sun kissing a specific feature has a window of only a few minutes. Arriving 30 minutes early and knowing the azimuth in advance is the difference between catching that alignment and watching it happen 200 metres to your left. For repeat locations, note that the azimuth for a given date is essentially identical year to year — a bearing scouted this June is valid every June.
For cross-checking computed bearings against authoritative tables, the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Astronomical Applications publishes rise/set azimuths for any location and date.
Sources
- NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory — Solar Calculation Details — the standard solar position equations.
- Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms (2nd ed.) — the reference text for the declination and azimuth relations used here.