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
const times = new SunCalc(new Date()).getTimes(51.5, -0.1);

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

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

// get sunrise azimuth in degrees
const sunriseAzimuth = (sunrisePos.azimuth * 180) / Math.PI;

SunCalc is also available as an NPM package:

npm install @zonneplan/suncalc

yarn add @zonneplan/suncalc

bun install @zonneplan/suncalc

import { SunCalc } from '@zonneplan/suncalc';

Reference

Sunlight times

new SunCalc(date: Date).getSolarTimes(latitude: number, longitude: number, height = 0): SolarTimes;

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

| Property | Description | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | 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) | | nadir | nadir (darkest moment of the night, sun is in the lowest position) | | nightEnd | night ends (morning astronomical twilight starts) | | nauticalDawn | nautical dawn (morning nautical twilight starts) | | dawn | dawn (morning nautical twilight ends, morning civil twilight starts) |

SunCalc.addTime(angleInDegrees: number, morningName: SunCalcGlobal.MorningName, eveningName: SunCalcGlobal.EveningName): void;

Sun position

new SunCalc(date: Date).getSolarPosition(latitude: number, longitude: number): SunPosition;

Returns a SunPosition 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

new SunCalc(date: Date).getMoonPosition(latitude: number, longitude: number): MoonPosition;

Returns a MoonPosition object with the following properties:

• altitude: moon altitude above the horizon in radians
• azimuth: moon azimuth in radians
• distance: distance to moon in kilometers
• parallacticAngle: parallactic angle of the moon in radians

Moon illumination

new SunCalc(date: Date).getMoonIllumination(): MoonIllumination;

Returns a MoonIllumination 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:

| Phase | Name | | ----: | --------------- | | 0 | New Moon | | | Waxing Crescent | | 0.25 | First Quarter | | | Waxing Gibbous | | 0.5 | Full Moon | | | Waning Gibbous | | 0.75 | Last Quarter | | | Waning Crescent |

By subtracting the parallacticAngle from the angle one can get the zenith angle of the moons bright limb (anticlockwise). The zenith angle can be used do draw the moon shape from the observers perspective (e.g. moon lying on its back).

Moon rise and set times

new SunCalc(date: Date).getMoonTimes(latitude: number, longitude: number, inUTC = false): MoonTimes;

Returns a MoonTimes object with the following properties:

• rise: moonrise time as Date
• set: moonset time as Date
• alwaysUp: true if the moon never rises/sets and is always above the horizon during the day
• alwaysDown: true if the moon is always below the horizon

By default, it will search for moon rise and set during local user's day (frou 0 to 24 hours). If inUTC is set to true, it will instead search the specified date from 0 to 24 UTC hours.

Changelog

2.0.0 — Nov 7, 2023

• Use TypeScript with modern syntax.

1.8.0 — Dec 22, 2016

• Improved precision of moonrise/moonset calculations.
• Added parallacticAngle calculation to getMoonPosition.
• Default to today's date in getMoonIllumination.
• Fixed incompatibility when using Browserify/Webpack together with a global AMD loader.

1.7.0 — Nov 11, 2015

• Added inUTC argument to getMoonTimes.

1.6.0 — Oct 27, 2014

• Added SunCalc.getMoonTimes for calculating moon rise and set times.

1.5.1 — May 16, 2014

• Exposed SunCalc.times property with defined daylight times.
• Slightly improved SunCalc.getTimes performance.

1.4.0 — Apr 10, 2014

• Added phase to SunCalc.getMoonIllumination results (moon phase).
• Switched from mocha to tape for tests.

1.3.0 — Feb 21, 2014

• Added SunCalc.getMoonIllumination (in place of getMoonFraction) that returns an object with fraction and angle (angle of illuminated limb of the moon).

1.2.0 — Mar 07, 2013

• Added SunCalc.getMoonFraction function that returns illuminated fraction of the moon.

1.1.0 — Mar 06, 2013

• Added SunCalc.getMoonPosition function.
• Added nadir (darkest time of the day, middle of the night).
• Added tests.

1.0.0 — Dec 07, 2011

• Published to NPM.
• Added SunCalc.addTime function.

0.0.0 — Aug 25, 2011

• First commit.