Today’s puzzle from Sol. Everyone plays the same city today.
Almanac
Six clues from one city's sky, one at a time. Name the city.
Sol for iPhone puts a new Almanac and Gnomon on its Day tab every day, beside tonight’s sunset forecast.
Know where the light will be.
Will tonight’s sunset be worth it?
Sunrise, golden hour and sunset, worked out .
Tonight : reading the forecast. Golden hour, worked out for where you are.
Weather apps tell you if it will rain. Sol tells you when the light is worth stepping outside for.
The sunset forecast
Sol reads the cloud overhead, the cloud to the west where the light has to travel, and the air between. Then it says little, some, good or exceptional colour.
Tonight, where you are
Reading the forecast…
From the same weather data and the same method the app uses, worked out in your browser.
The sunset alert
Open the evening’s forecast and Sol sets one alert, 40 minutes before golden hour, when it reads exceptional colour. Widgets and Apple Watch keep the day’s light in view.
SolExceptional colour tonight
New York. High cloud overhead to catch the colour. The sun sets in clear view. Golden 5:40–6:45 PM.
Light left today, where you are
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Sol for iPhone is coming soon.
The Sky tab
Turn the dial and the sun goes down, golden hour comes and goes, and the stars come out where they will stand.
The Shadow tab · Sol Pro
Sol stands the building at its real height among its neighbours and counts each window’s hours of sun, today, at the solstices and at the equinox.
The side of a building that gets the most sun where you are, and its hours of sun today.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors and the Overture Maps Foundation.
Dawn, noon, sunset and dusk each open a window to step outside for. Dawn and its alert are free.
Two daily puzzles, free here and in the app. A shared result never gives the answer away.
Pick a real route and Sol flies it in real time over the Earth, lit as it is now, while you work. One a day is free.
The Shadow tab · Pro
Sol stands your building at its real height, from OpenStreetMap and Overture’s map of buildings, and walks the sun of any minute of any day across it. Pull back and up to 40,000 buildings rise around it, fifteen kilometres of city, every one casting its shadow, with the streets named and the trees in leaf or thin for the season.
Your building Its real footprint and height.
Its neighbourhood Hundreds of buildings, every one casting.
The whole city Up to 40,000 buildings, 15 km out.
The Earth Pinch out beyond the board and the Globe takes over.
Up to
40,000
buildings on the board, each at its real height
Out to
15 km
of city round your building
Every
window
with its hours of sun, today and through the year
Any
address
on Earth, or one of thirteen landmarks
Which side gets the evening, and when the shadow reaches the street. Move the sun through one October day on the Empire State Building.
Move the sun through 2 October, every ninety minutes from 7:45 in the morning to golden hour.
Your shadow now
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South-facing glass
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The sunniest side
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Tap any spot on the ground for the hours of direct sun it gets that day, at a standing person’s height.
Tap a building to meet it: its name and its roof’s hours of sun. Tap it again to move in.
Turn on the windows and each one on your building shows its hours of sun, with a report for the day, the solstices and the equinox.
In leaf from May to September and thin from November to March, half a year later in the south, and their shadows with them.
Search anywhere on Earth and go and stand there, or pick one of thirteen landmarks, from the Transamerica Pyramid to the Eureka Tower.
Pinch out beyond the board, past its farthest stop, and the Globe takes over above the same place. Pinch into the globe and you come back down.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors and the Overture Maps Foundation.
Sol reads the cloud forecast overhead and to the west, where the sun’s light has to travel, and the air in between. Hours ahead, it says in one of four words — little, some, good or exceptional colour — whether tonight is worth it. It reads the cloud to the west because checking only the cloud over your head is the usual way to get a sunset wrong.
Tonight, where you are
Reading the forecast…
From the same weather data and the same method the app uses, worked out in your browser.
Golden hour
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Sunset
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Light ends
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The two alerts, as they would read this evening.
SolExceptional colour tonight
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SolGolden hour.
When the light turns golden, go for a walk.
One alert, 40 minutes before golden hour, when the forecast reads exceptional colour; good colour joins once your ratings back it. It stays off until you turn it on.
The same forecast for 82 cities, each made at least an hour before its sunset and kept in a public record. Here is where colour is likely this evening, every city under its own sky as it stands this minute.
Exceptional colour
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Good colour or better
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Of the 82 cities, in tonight’s forecasts.
In the record
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Every forecast, kept before its evening.
Golden hour is the light while the sun stands between six degrees up and four degrees under the horizon. Sol works it out for your place and your day, morning and evening. Here is today’s light, midnight to midnight.
Morning golden hour
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Evening golden hour
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Daylight today
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The year’s light, where you are
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The sky over you at any minute: the sun where it stands, and after dark thousands of stars at their true brightness, the planets by name and the constellations you face. Turn the dial at its foot and see the evening before it happens.
Each stop is the sky over New York at that minute on 2 October.
How much light is left, and where the sun is standing, under the same sky the phone paints — cobalt by day, the glow where the sun went down, navy and stars at night. Your places, tonight’s forecast and your rituals come across from the phone.
Light left today, where you are
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Dawn, noon, sunset and dusk each open a window into the light, to step outside for. Add acts of your own to the light — a walk at golden hour, screens down at dusk — and Sol sends an alert when each one opens. The dawn ritual is free; the whole day is Pro.
Dawn
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From first light until an hour after sunrise.
Noon
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Ninety minutes either side of solar noon.
Sunset
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From golden hour until the light ends.
Dusk
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Two hours from the end of the light.
The whole Earth with the line of night across it, the planets on their real paths at the real moment, and thousands of stars at their true brightness, the figures of the constellations coming forward as you look toward them.
Tonight’s moon, where you are
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Where it stands
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The next full moon
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The daily games · Free today
The Almanac shows you a city by its sky alone, one more clue with every guess, and six guesses to name it. The Gnomon stands a famous building under that day’s sun at an hour kept secret. Everyone plays the same number on the same day, and what you share never gives the answer away.
Forty minutes before golden hour, when the forecast reads exceptional colour. Good colour joins once your ratings back it.
Each is recorded before the evening, so how often it was right can be counted.
The app works without signing in to anything.
Through iCloud Family Sharing.
From English, Deutsch and Español to 日本語, 한국어 and 简体中文.
Every instrument, for 82 cities and any place you type.
The light where you stand, with the alert, the widgets and Apple Watch.
Coming soon
Get early accessSee what it does
Every instrument, free, for 82 cities and any place you type.
Free today
Open the instrumentsSunset tonight
Every evening’s golden hour and sunset for your nearest city, with the colour forecast, in the calendar you already use. Refreshed nightly.
A free embed for any site: the forecast, the time and golden hour for a city, or tonight’s moon. One script tag, no key.
Sol’s instruments as tools for assistants: sunrise, sunset and golden hour anywhere, tonight’s forecast, the moon and shadow length.
Short, practical guides to sunset forecasts, golden-hour photography and sunlight at home, each ending in a tool to try.
Thirty words, from golden hour and the blue hour to the belt of Venus, each drawn once and said plainly.
Every city’s sunset, golden hour and moon, refreshed every night, from Lisbon to Tokyo.
Get tonight’s sunset alert.
Or get one email when Sol for iPhone ships.
Sol for iPhone is coming soon. Leave your address for early access and one email when it ships.
Free today, on this site: every instrument, the daily games and golden hours in your calendar.
Play and learn
More from Sol
The sunset forecast
It reads the cloud forecast overhead and to the west, where the sun’s light has to travel, and the air in between. High cloud overhead catches the colour; cloud to the west blocks the light before it arrives. Fog at ground level, overcast and haze hold it back, and clean air after rain helps.
Hours ahead, it says in one of four words — little, some, good or exceptional colour — whether tonight is worth it. Every forecast is recorded before the evening; ten minutes after sunset the app asks what you saw, and after eight rated evenings it tells you how often it was right.
The sunset pages here make the same forecast for 82 cities. The app makes it for the place you are standing.
Tonight’s forecast for 82 citiesMethods and sources
The Sky tab
When the light goes, the catalogue comes out: thousands of stars at their true brightness, the planets by name, and the figures of the constellations coming forward as you look toward them.
Run time and the sky wheels overhead in long exposures. Tap the moon for its phase and its rising.
The sunset alert
Turn it on, then open the evening’s forecast in the six hours before sunset. If it reads exceptional colour and holds for two forecast hours, Sol sends one alert 40 minutes before golden hour. Good colour joins once your ratings show the forecast works where you are.
It stays off until you turn it on. Sunrise colour follows the same physics: Sol reads the cloud to the east before dawn, and its alert works like the sunset’s.
Your record
Each forecast is recorded before the evening. Ten minutes after sunset Sol asks what you saw, and after eight evenings it tells you how often it was right.
On this site, over 1,100 forecasts have been kept for 82 cities since 6 September, each one issued at least an hour before the sun set.
Accounts
The app asks for no sign-in. An account on this site is only for this site: your saved plans, rooms and teams. The app does not sign in to it yet.
For the place under your feet the app uses your phone’s own location. The instruments here work for 82 cities and any place you type, with your browser’s location if you allow it.
Languages
English, Deutsch, Español, Français, עברית, Bahasa Indonesia, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Português, Русский, Türkçe and 简体中文.
Free and Pro
The app’s own list, as its paywall states it. Pro is shared with your family through iCloud Family Sharing.
Everything in Free, and:
