SunCalc

SunCalc is a tiny BSD-licensed JavaScript library for calculating sun position, sunlight phases (times for sunrise, sunset, dusk, etc.), moon position and lunar phase for the given location and time, created by Vladimir Agafonkin (@mourner) as a part of the SunCalc.net project.

Most calculations are based on the formulas given in the excellent Astronomy Answers articles about position of the sun and the planets. You can read about different twilight phases calculated by SunCalc in the Twilight article on Wikipedia.

Usage example

// get today's sunlight times for London
var times = SunCalc.getTimes(new Date(), 51.5, -0.1);

// format sunrise time from the Date object
var sunriseStr = times.sunrise.getHours() + ':' + times.sunrise.getMinutes();

// get position of the sun (azimuth and altitude) at today's sunrise
var sunrisePos = SunCalc.getPosition(times.sunrise, 51.5, -0.1);

// get sunrise azimuth in degrees
var sunriseAzimuth = sunrisePos.azimuth * 180 / Math.PI;

Using in a server environment

In addition to browsers, SunCalc can be used in server environments like Node, and is available as an NPM package (npm install suncalc).

var SunCalc = require('suncalc');

Reference

Sunlight times

SunCalc.getTimes(/*Date*/ date, /*Number*/ latitude, /*Number*/ longitude)

Returns an object with the following properties (each is a Date object):

• sunrise: sunrise (top edge of the sun appears on the horizon)
• sunriseEnd: sunrise ends (bottom edge of the sun touches the horizon)
• goldenHourEnd: morning golden hour (soft light, best time for photography) ends
• solarNoon: solar noon (sun is in the highest position)
• goldenHour: evening golden hour starts
• sunsetStart: sunset starts (bottom edge of the sun touches the horizon)
• sunset: sunset (sun disappears below the horizon, evening civil twilight starts)
• dusk: dusk (evening nautical twilight starts)
• nauticalDusk: nautical dusk (evening astronomical twilight starts)
• night: night starts (dark enough for astronomical observations)
• nightEnd: night ends (morning astronomical twilight starts)
• nauticalDawn: nautical dawn (morning nautical twilight starts)
• dawn: dawn (morning nautical twilight ends, morning civil twilight starts)
• nadir: nadir (darkest moment of the night, sun is in the lowest position)

SunCalc.addTime(/*Number*/ angleInDegrees, /*String*/ morningName, /*String*/ eveningName)

Adds a custom time when the sun reaches the given angle to results returned by SunCalc.getTimes.

Sun position

SunCalc.getPosition(/*Date*/ timeAndDate, /*Number*/ latitude, /*Number*/ longitude)

Returns an object with the following properties:

• altitude: sun altitude above the horizon in radians, e.g. 0 at the horizon and PI/2 at the zenith (straight over your head)
• azimuth: sun azimuth in radians (direction along the horizon, measured from south to west), e.g. 0 is south and Math.PI * 3/4 is northwest

Moon position

SunCalc.getMoonPosition(/*Date*/ timeAndDate, /*Number*/ latitude, /*Number*/ longitude)

Returns an object with the following properties:

• altitude: moon altitude above the horizon in radians
• azimuth: moon azimuth in radians
• distance: distance to moon in kilometers

Moon illumination

SunCalc.getMoonIllumination(/*Date*/ timeAndDate)

Returns an object with the following properties:

• fraction: illuminated fraction of the moon; varies from 0.0 (new moon) to 1.0 (full moon)
• phase: moon phase; varies from 0.0 to 1.0, described below
• angle: midpoint angle in radians of the illuminated limb of the moon reckoned eastward from the north point of the disk; the moon is waxing if the angle is negative, and waning if positive

Moon phase value should be interpreted like this:

| 0 | New Moon | | | Waxing Crescent | | 0.25 | First Quarter | | | Waxing Gibbous | | 0.5 | Full Moon | | | Waning Gibbous | | 0.75 | Last Quarter | | | Waning Crescent |