Deconstruct SunSun Path & Daylight Calculator
Sunrise, sunset, hours of daylight and the sun’s path across the sky for any US ZIP code or city, on any date, with the solstices and equinoxes for comparison.
Daylight hours vs. hours of direct sun
Daylight is the time between sunrise and sunset. It is the most sun a perfectly open spot could get. A real garden bed sits among trees, houses and fences, so its direct-sun hours are lower, often much lower in winter when the sun stays near the horizon.
That gap is what plant tags care about. Full sun means 6 or more hours of direct sun, not 6 hours of daylight.
How to read the sun path
Picture standing at your spot and facing south. The chart unrolls the whole sky: east on the left, south in the middle, west on the right, with height above the horizon going up. The sun rises on the left, peaks at solar noon, and sets on the right. In June the arc is tall and wide, rising north of east. In December it is short and low, rising south of east.
Anything taller than the arc at a given direction blocks the sun at that time. That is exactly how the Deconstruct Sun app works: you draw the skyline of trees and buildings on this same chart (or trace it over a photo), and it counts the minutes the sun clears it.
Measure the hours your spot really gets
Trace the trees and buildings around one exact spot and see its direct-sun hours, today and in every season. Free on iPhone.
Sun hours in popular cities
Longest day of the year (June solstice) for some of the most-searched cities:
- New York, NY 15h 05m
- Los Angeles, CA 14h 25m
- Chicago, IL 15h 13m
- Houston, TX 14h 04m
- Phoenix, AZ 14h 23m
- Atlanta, GA 14h 24m
- Denver, CO 14h 59m
- Seattle, WA 15h 59m
- Raleigh, NC 14h 36m
- Nashville, TN 14h 37m
- Portland, OR 15h 41m
- Austin, TX 14h 06m
Questions
How do I find out how many hours of sun my yard gets?
This calculator gives the open-sky maximum: the hours between sunrise and sunset. Your yard gets less, because trees, houses and fences block the low sun. To measure the real number for one spot, the Deconstruct Sun iPhone app has you trace those obstructions and adds up only the minutes the sun clears them.
What does the sun path chart show?
It shows where the sun is in the sky through the day: compass direction across the bottom and height above the horizon up the side. The orange line is your chosen date, with a dot at each hour. The top gray arc is the June solstice, the highest path of the year, and the bottom one is the December solstice, the lowest.
Why does the noon sun matter for gardens?
The lower the sun, the longer the shadows. In winter the noon sun can sit below 30° in much of the US, so a fence or tree to the south shades two or three times its own height. The shadow tool on this page works it out for any height.
What is solar noon?
Solar noon is when the sun is highest and due south (in the Northern Hemisphere). Because of time zones and daylight saving time it is usually not 12:00 on the clock; in much of the US it falls between 12:30 and 1:30 PM in summer.
Are these sunrise and sunset times exact?
They are calculated from standard astronomical formulas for the point you choose and are typically within a minute or two. Hills and mountains on the horizon make the real sunrise later and sunset earlier.