How to use it
Start with a place: pick a UK town from the list, let your phone share where you are, or enter a latitude and longitude. Today's times show straight away, and a shared location never leaves your device. Underneath, pick a month or the whole year and the table fills in, one row a day. Print this table gives a clean black and white sheet, handy for a fridge door, a club noticeboard or a camera bag. Copy the page address to send someone the same place and table.
How to read the times
Sunrise and sunset are the moments the top edge of the Sun meets a level horizon. Hills, trees and buildings make your own sunset a little earlier. Day length runs from sunrise to sunset.
First light and last light are civil twilight, when the centre of the Sun is 6° below the horizon. Between those and sunrise or sunset there is still enough light to be outdoors without a torch. In Shetland in June, last light can fall after midnight.
Every time on the page follows the UK clocks, so winter times are GMT and summer times are BST, each one labelled. The clocks go forward on the last Sunday in March and back on the last Sunday in October, so on those days the times jump by an hour. The printed sheet marks BST times with a star.
How much the day changes across the UK
The further north you are, the bigger the swing. On 21 June 2026 London gets about 16 hours 39 minutes from sunrise to sunset, and Lerwick in Shetland about 18 hours 55 minutes. In December it turns round, and the north has the shortest days. Try your own town against one at the other end of the country.
How it is worked out
The sums are done by Astronomy Engine, a free, open library, for the precise spot you chose, and they include the small lift the atmosphere gives the Sun near the horizon. We compared the results with the tables published by the US Naval Observatory for London, Inverness and Lerwick, in summer, in winter and across both clock changes, and they agree to within two minutes. The list of towns and their positions is from GeoNames, shared under CC BY 4.0.
Planning an evening out under the stars? Tonight's sky adds the dark hours, the Moon and the planets. For the Moon, see Moon phase today.
Written by Craig Fearn, Aphelion Prints. Last updated .