Golden Hour Content Planner
Get the exact golden hour, blue hour, sunrise, sunset and solar-noon times for any location and date. Pure browser maths — nothing sent to any server, no API key needed.
How it works
The tool uses the NOAA solar-position algorithm (pure JavaScript, no external data) to compute the sun's altitude for every moment of the day at your chosen latitude and longitude. Golden hour is defined as the sun being between -4° and +6° elevation (soft warm light); blue hour is -6° to -4° (soft cool light before sunrise / after sunset). Sunrise and sunset use the standard -0.833° elevation — that accounts for the sun's disc and atmospheric refraction.
How to use this tool
- Pick a city preset (accurate lat/lon and correct timezone auto-fill), or enter your own coordinates. You can also click Use my location to fill them from your browser (requires permission).
- Pick the shoot date. Defaults to today.
- Read the schedule. Times are shown in the location's local timezone when you pick a city preset — for manual coordinates the tool falls back to a longitude-based approximation.
- Copy the schedule and paste into your call sheet, shot list or a group chat with the crew.
Frequently asked questions
What actually is golden hour?
The window shortly after sunrise or shortly before sunset when the sun is low in the sky. Because the light travels through more atmosphere at a low angle, it gets softer, warmer and more directional — dramatically flattering for skin, landscapes and hero shots. This tool uses the standard definition (sun elevation between -4° and +6°), which is roughly a 30–90 min window depending on your latitude and season.
And blue hour?
The twilight window when the sun is just below the horizon (elevation between -6° and -4°). The sky glows a deep, saturated blue — cinematic for wide exteriors, cityscape B-roll, mood pieces. Comes right before sunrise's blue hour and right after sunset's.
How accurate are the times?
Within a minute or two for most locations and dates — enough for planning. The NOAA algorithm accounts for the equation of time, orbital eccentricity and standard atmospheric refraction. For extreme latitudes (above ~66°) some days have no golden or blue hour at all; the tool will display "—" in those cases.
Why are my times in a weird timezone when I enter coordinates manually?
Because we don't have a global lat/lon → timezone database in the browser, so we fall back to a rough offset derived from longitude (each 15° = 1 hour). It's usually within 30 min of the real local time. To get exact DST-aware times, pick a city preset instead — those carry an IANA timezone.
Does it handle daylight saving?
Yes when you pick a city preset — the tool uses the location's IANA zone, so DST transitions are automatic. For manual coordinates it doesn't, since the longitude-based fallback is a fixed offset.