Where is the Sun in the sky right now?
The Sun Position tool converts your observing location and selected time into two practical angles: altitude and azimuth. Altitude tells you how high the Sun is above or below the horizon. Zero degrees is the geometric horizon, positive values place the Sun in the visible sky and 90 degrees would be directly overhead at the zenith. Azimuth tells you the compass direction, measured around the horizon. A value near 90 degrees is east, 180 degrees is south and 270 degrees is west. Together those angles describe where the Sun is in your local sky much more precisely than a simple label such as “morning” or “afternoon.”
The sky-path graphic gives the same information visually. The outer circle represents the horizon, the center represents the zenith and the Sun’s calculated arc shows how its direction and elevation change through the selected day. This is useful for astronomy education, solar photography, architecture, outdoor planning and understanding why shadows move. The path changes continuously through the year because Earth’s axis is tilted and the Sun’s apparent declination shifts as Earth travels around its orbit.
Understanding solar altitude
When the Sun’s altitude is low, sunlight travels through more of Earth’s atmosphere before reaching you. That longer atmospheric path contributes to the warm colors often associated with sunrise and sunset. As altitude increases, the Sun becomes higher in the sky, shadows become shorter and the intensity of direct sunlight generally increases when weather conditions are comparable. Solar noon is approximately the time when the Sun reaches its highest altitude for that day at your longitude. It does not necessarily occur at 12:00 on the civil clock because time zones, longitude and the equation of time shift the relationship between clock noon and solar transit.
If you are interested primarily in sunrise, sunset or twilight rather than the current position, use Sunrise & Sunset Today. If you want to compare an entire month, use the Sunrise & Sunset Calendar. Those pages focus on event times, while this page focuses on the Sun’s geometry at a chosen moment.
Understanding solar azimuth and compass direction
Azimuth is measured clockwise from north in the convention used by this tool. That means east is about 90 degrees, south about 180 and west about 270. Sunrise is often described casually as “in the east” and sunset as “in the west,” but the exact azimuth can move substantially north or south of those directions during the year, especially away from the equator. Near an equinox the rise and set directions are closer to due east and due west; around the solstices the difference becomes more pronounced. This seasonal movement is important for photographers choosing a viewpoint and for anyone trying to predict where sunlight will enter a room or strike a landscape.
The tool also shows the opposite direction of the Sun as an approximate shadow direction on a flat horizontal surface. Real shadows depend on the shape and orientation of the object, slope of the ground and local obstacles, so this value is a directional guide rather than a full architectural shadow model.
Use Sun position with photography and sky tools
For photography, azimuth helps answer where the light will come from, while altitude helps answer how high and harsh or low and directional that light may be. The Golden Hour Calculator turns the same solar geometry into practical low-light windows around sunrise and sunset. For blue hour and the transition into true night, use Twilight Times. This progression lets you plan from direct daylight through warm low-Sun light into twilight and finally astronomical darkness.
Sun position is also important for satellite visibility. A spacecraft can be above your horizon but invisible if it is in Earth’s shadow, while a pass during local twilight can be bright when the spacecraft remains illuminated. Use ISS Visible Tonight after checking the solar geometry if you are planning a visual pass. For planets and stars, the Sun’s altitude explains whether the background sky is still too bright even when the object is geometrically above your horizon; Night Sky Tonight provides that broader local context.
Why calculated and apparent Sun position can differ slightly
Near the horizon, atmospheric refraction bends light and shifts the Sun’s apparent position slightly upward compared with a purely geometric calculation. Mountains, buildings, trees and elevation also change what you physically see from a specific viewpoint. The tool therefore provides a high-quality planning position based on standard solar geometry rather than a survey-grade model of every local obstruction. The U.S. Naval Observatory is an authoritative reference for solar position, rise, set and transit concepts, while NASA Science explains the physical Sun behind those apparent motions. On SpaceTracker.live, the goal is to make that geometry immediately useful for your location and observing plan.