Golden hour, wherever you stand
Reading the sky.
Golden hour and blue hour for any place and date, worked out in your browser.
Morning golden hour
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After sunrise, the light low and warm.
Evening golden hour
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Before sunset, the light low and warm.
Evening blue hour
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After the sun, the blue.
Daylight
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Golden hour where you stand, on your phone and your wrist.
Sol for iPhone is coming soon, with an alert when the light is worth going out for.
Where the light comes from.
You stand at the middle of your horizon. The dots are the sun’s path that day, warm where it crosses the golden band, from 6° above the horizon to 4° below. Slide through the day, or drag the sky to turn it.
Three questions about the light.
What is golden hour?
Not sixty minutes: the span with the sun between 4° below the horizon and 6° above it, when its light crosses a long slice of air and arrives warm and low.
Why does it last longer in some places?
Near the equator the sun drops steeply through the band and golden hour is brief; at high latitudes it slants along the horizon and lingers, for well over an hour around midsummer.
What is blue hour?
From 4° to 6° below the horizon the sun’s light is gone but the sky still glows, even and shadowless: shorter than golden hour, and worth planning for.
Golden hour, before you ask.
Sol for iPhone is coming soon, with golden hour where you stand on your phone and your wrist, and an alert when the light is worth going out for. Leave your address for early access and one email when it ships.
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