How long after sunrise is it fully light?
The duration of the twilight period (e.g. between astronomical dawn and sunrise) varies greatly depending on the observer's latitude: from a little over 70 minutes at the Equator, to many hours in the polar regions.
Recap of How Long Darkness Takes After Sunset
In summary, for the 48 contiguous states, it takes anywhere from 70 to 100 minutes for it to get dark after sunset. The further north you are, the longer it takes for true darkness to arrive after sundown.
Civil twilight
In the UK, it is between 30 and 60 minutes after sunset.
This year, the winter solstice will fall on a Tuesday, December 21. By January 18 an extra hour of daylight will come, and every four weeks thereafter, an hour or so of sunshine should lighten the day up. After this, the days will continue to get brighter until the summer solstice on June 21, 2021.
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London, England, United Kingdom — Sunrise, Sunset, and Daylength, November 2022.
Current Time: | Nov 15, 2022 at 5:49:45 pm |
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Sunrise Today: | 7:20 am↑ 120° Southeast |
It depends on your location on earth, but usually between 15-30 minutes before Sunrise and 15-30 minutes after Sunset.
At first it is indistinguishable from darkness, then gradually one will see a slight lightening in the east, often a greenish colour, then turning a sort of orange. The next is nautical twilight (50 to 25 minutes before sunrise).
So How Long Does It Take to Get Dark after the Sunset? In short, it takes somewhere between 70 and 140 minutes for the Sun to go past 18º below the horizon and reach the night phase. However, closer to the equator, the timeframe would be around 23 minutes.
Sunlight Today | Starts | Ends |
---|---|---|
Sunset | 05:18 pm | 05:21 pm |
Evening civil twilight | 05:21 pm | 05:49 pm |
Evening nautical twilight | 05:49 pm | 06:20 pm |
Evening astronomical twilight | 06:20 pm | 06:51 pm |
Vernal equinox, a date in the spring of the year usually around March 21 and Autumnal equinox, a date in the fall of the year usually around September 23 are the days when earth experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
What day has 24 hours of sunlight?
Around the summer solstice (approximately 21 June in the Northern Hemisphere and 21 December in the Southern Hemisphere), in certain areas the Sun does not set below the horizon within a 24-hour period.
Monthly average daily sun hours in the United Kingdom (UK) 2015-2022. The lowest average daily sun hours in the United Kingdom typically occur in January and December.

With up to about 16:40 hours, there are the longest days in June. The longest dark nights, on the other hand, are in winter. A December night in London lasts almost 17 hours and the days start about 4 hours later. During these days, the sun in London rises at 7:15.
The earliest sunset takes place in south-east Kent and the latest sunset takes place on the Isle of Lewis. The time system used in the map is British Summer Time (BST) which can be regarded as UTC plus one hour for the purposes of this exercise.
From 22 December onward, the UK will then experience more daylight, which means brighter mornings and lighter evenings for longer. However, this happens incrementally until 21 June 2022 - the Summer Solstice - which is the longest day of the year.
How many minutes a day does it get lighter in the UK? The UK gets lighter by 2 minutes and 7 seconds each day following the Winter Solstice on 21 December. This equates to an extra hour of daylight a month from 18 January onwards. The reason this happens is because of earth's orbit of the sun.
The Spring Equinox will see both mornings and evenings last for roughly 12 hours each from Sunday March 20 2022. After this point, we will see lighter days and evenings as we approach the Summer Solstice, which falls in late June and marks the longest day and shortest night.
Summer solstice, also known as the longest day of the year, will fall on June 21, and mark the return of brighter evenings as it is the brightest day. Summer solstice, also known as the longest day of the year, will fall on June 21, and mark the return of brighter evenings as it is the longest period of sunlight.
Blame our elliptical orbit
The discrepancy is caused by the Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun. In early January the Earth is closest to the Sun and as a consequence, it is moving fastest in its orbit.
2022 | Sunrise/Sunset | Civil Twilight |
---|---|---|
Mar | Sunrise | End |
27 | 6:47 am ↑ | 7:58 pm |
28 | 6:45 am ↑ | 8:00 pm |
29 | 6:42 am ↑ | 8:02 pm |
How long is sunrise UK?
Time: | Duration: | |
---|---|---|
Sunrise | 07:16 | |
Golden Hour | 07:16 - 08:08 | 51 min. |
Zenith | 11:44 | |
Golden Hour | 15:21 - 16:12 | 51 min. |
Blue hour usually lasts about 20–30 minutes right after sunset and right before sunrise. For instance, if the sun sets at 6:30 p.m., blue hour would occur from 6:40 p.m. to 7 p.m.. If the sun were to rise at 7:30 a.m., blue hour would occur from 7 a.m. to 7:20 a.m..
Research indicates that an hour of natural light in the morning will help you sleep better. Sunshine regulates your circadian rhythm by telling your body when to increase and decrease your melatonin levels.
Why it's so dark in the morning is a matter of the Earth's rotation on its axis (which is at a tilt of 23.5 degrees) around the sun.
Often the best show of colors comes before the sun breaches the horizon if you have decent cloud cover. Arriving 30 minutes before sunrise might mean you miss this colorful show or are scrambling to get set up and shoot before the colors are dashed. My rule of thumb is to show up an hour before the actual sunrise time.