Find the sun's angle at a place and time

Will the sun clear the neighbor's roof at 3 pm in December? Elevation and azimuth for any coordinates and UTC time.

Tools used in this guide

The job

Photo planning, shading checks, and solar panel siting all need the sun's position: elevation above the horizon and azimuth as compass degrees (0° = north, 90° = east). Both depend on latitude, longitude, and the UTC instant.

Coordinates and a moment

Enter lat/lon and a UTC date-time — or hit now. The tool returns elevation and azimuth, plus a day's path sampled hourly so you can see the arc.

Worked example

Tokyo (35.68° N, 139.69° E) at 12:00 JST on the June solstice — 03:00 UTC: elevation 77.2°, azimuth 197.8°, nearly overhead and slightly west of south. On the December solstice at the same hour the sun is at 30.7°, azimuth 185.5° — low in the south.

Scope

A NOAA-style approximation good to roughly 0.01–0.5° — fine for shading and photography, not for surveying or navigation. Times are UTC; convert local time yourself.