What is golden hour?
Golden hour is the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low on the horizon, producing warm, diffused, directional light that photographers prize above all other natural lighting conditions.
The exact timing depends on your latitude, the time of year, and local topography. Near the equator, golden hour lasts roughly 20–30 minutes. At higher latitudes in summer, it can stretch to over an hour.
How we calculate it
Golden hour begins when the sun's altitude reaches 6° above the horizon and ends at sunset (evening) or starts at sunrise and ends when the sun reaches 6° (morning). The warm color temperature is most pronounced when the sun is between 0° and 4° — the “deep golden” zone.
Blue hour occurs when the sun is between -4° and -6° below the horizon — the brief window between golden hour and civil twilight when the sky turns a deep, saturated blue.
All calculations use NASA JPL DE441 ephemeris data with sub-arcsecond precision.