Blue hour times
Blue hour start and end times for your location, morning and evening, calculated from the sun's position. Free, runs in your browser.
What blue hour is
Blue hour is the twilight when the sun is a few degrees below the horizon and the sky turns deep blue while city lights are on. This calculator uses the sun between 4° and 6° below the horizon, a common photographers' convention. Civil twilight, the official term, runs from sunset until the sun is 6° below.
Morning or evening
The morning blue hour comes before golden hour, the evening one after it. For cityscapes the evening blue hour is easier because lights are already on; the morning one is quieter.
Exposure tip
Light falls quickly during blue hour, so use a tripod and expect your exposure time to change by several stops within twenty minutes.
Evening blue hour in eight cities, 2026
Local clock times when the sun is between 4° and 6° below the horizon after sunset. Blue hour is much shorter than its name: in this table it runs from 8 minutes (Singapore) to 27 minutes (Reykjavik). Plan to be set up before it starts.
| City | 20 Mar March equinox | 21 Jun June solstice | 23 Sep September equinox | 21 Dec December solstice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 18:33–18:46 13 min | 21:49–22:09 20 min | 19:17–19:29 13 min | 16:18–16:33 15 min |
| New York | 19:24–19:35 11 min | 20:50–21:04 13 min | 19:08–19:18 11 min | 16:50–17:02 12 min |
| Los Angeles | 19:20–19:29 10 min | 20:25–20:36 11 min | 19:03–19:12 10 min | 17:04–17:15 11 min |
| Toronto | 19:47–19:58 11 min | 21:24–21:38 14 min | 19:30–19:41 11 min | 17:03–17:16 13 min |
| Sydney | 19:22–19:31 10 min | 17:10–17:21 11 min | 18:07–18:16 10 min | 20:23–20:34 11 min |
| Tokyo | 18:08–18:18 10 min | 19:18–19:30 12 min | 17:53–18:02 10 min | 16:49–17:00 11 min |
| Singapore | 19:28–19:36 8 min | 19:26–19:35 9 min | 19:13–19:21 8 min | 19:17–19:26 9 min |
| Reykjavik | 20:12–20:31 19 min | twilight all night — no blue hour end | 19:54–20:12 19 min | 16:21–16:48 27 min |
In Reykjavik around the June solstice the sun never gets 6° below the horizon, so the evening twilight runs straight into the morning one.
Related
- Moonrise and moon phase — the moon's rise and set times and direction for the same place.
- Planets tonight — what is visible after the blue hour ends.
- When the clocks change — on the day of a daylight saving change every sunrise and sunset time on the clock moves by an hour, although the sun does not.
Times are calculated with the NOAA solar position equations; sunrise and sunset use the standard −0.833° horizon. Golden hour (6° to −4°) and blue hour (−4° to −6°) are photographers' conventions, not official definitions.