Day & Night World Map
A world map shaded by real-time sunlight: the day side, the night side and the terminator line between them, computed from the sun’s actual position for any date and time you pick. Drag the time slider to watch the terminator sweep across the Earth, jump to the solstices and equinoxes with one click, and see the subsolar point — the spot where the sun is directly overhead — plus civil, nautical and astronomical twilight bands. A clean way to see why summer days are long, why the poles get midnight sun, and why the equinox terminator runs straight through both poles.
Runs 100% in your browser — your files never leave your device.
Read the full guide to this tool
Notes
- The sun’s declination follows the seasons between +23.4° and −23.4°; the terminator is always a great circle, but on a flat map it draws as a curve that flattens to a vertical line at the equinoxes.
- Twilight bands are defined by how far the sun sits below the horizon: civil to 6°, nautical to 12°, astronomical to 18°. Beyond that the sky is fully dark.
- Solar position is computed with a standard low-precision ephemeris — accurate to a fraction of a degree, which is far finer than the map can show.
- Runs 100% in your browser — your files and data never leave your device.
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