Javascript or Python - How do I figure out if it's night or day?

Question

any idea how I figure out if it's currently night/day or sunrise/dawn based on time and location of the user?

I haven't found anything useful that I could use within either the client or backend.

What makes it tricky is the hour doesn't necessarily define if it is night and day, this depends pretty much on the year, month, day, hour and geo coordinates.

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For clarification... to emulate something like this.

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A way to approximate this would be very useful as well.

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Hope that someone can help!

Answer 1

Note to Python 3 users: I just tried the code below using Python 3.8.6 and it works in that version, too. I had to convert the print statements into print() function calls, but that was all.

I noticed that the example implementation of tzinfo classes is different from what's in the Python 2 documentation, but using the example tzinfo classes in the tzinfo_example.py file referenced in the latest documentation worked just fine (but so did the older 2.x versions).

You can download a Python 3 version of the sunriseset.py file shown below from here.

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You can do as I did and use this public domain Sun.py module to compute the position of the sun relative to positions on the Earth. (Warning: it contains tab characters and assumes tabs are every 8 characters.) It's pretty old, but has continued to work well for me for many years. I made a few superficial modifications to it to be more up-to-date with Python 2.7, such as making the few classes in it new-style, but for the most part it's unchanged.

Here's one module I created, called sunriseset.py, which shows how to use it to calculate the sunrise and sunset times for a specific location given its geographic coordinates and timezone. The referenced timezone module is an implementation of the tzinfo abstract base class described in the datetime module's documentation on tzinfoobjects.

# -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-
import datetime
import timezone  # concrete tzinfo subclass based on the Python docs
import math
from Sun import Sun

__all__ = ['getsuninfo', 'Place']

class Place(object):
    def __init__(self, name, coords, tz=timezone.Pacific):
        self.name = name        # string
        self.coords = coords    # tuple (E/W long, N/S lat)
        self.tz = tz            # tzinfo constant

def _hoursmins(hours):
    """Convert floating point decimal time in hours to integer hrs,mins"""
    frac,h = math.modf(hours)
    m = round(frac*60, 0)
    if m == 60: # rounded up to next hour
        h += 1; m = 0
    return int(h),int(m)

def _ymd(date):
    """Return y,m,d from datetime object as tuple"""
    return date.timetuple()[:3]

def getsuninfo(location, date=None):
    """Return local datetime of sunrise, sunset, and length of day in hrs,mins)"""
    if date == None:
        querydate = datetime.date.today()
    else: # date given should be datetime instance
        querydate = date

    args = _ymd(querydate) + location.coords
    utcrise, utcset = Sun().sunRiseSet(*args)
    daylength = Sun().dayLength(*args)
    hrs,mins = _hoursmins(daylength)

    risehour, risemin = _hoursmins(utcrise)
    sethour, setmin   = _hoursmins(utcset)

    # convert times to timedelta values (ie from midnight utc of the date)
    midnight = datetime.datetime(tzinfo=timezone.utc, *_ymd(querydate))
    deltarise = datetime.timedelta(hours=risehour, minutes=risemin)
    utcdatetimerise = midnight+deltarise
    deltaset = datetime.timedelta(hours=sethour, minutes=setmin)
    utcdatetimeset  = midnight+deltaset

    # convert results from UTC time to local time of location
    localrise = utcdatetimerise.astimezone(location.tz)
    localset  = utcdatetimeset.astimezone(location.tz)

    return localrise, localset, hrs, mins

if __name__ == "__main__":
    import datetime, timezone

    def unittest(location, testdate):
        risetime, settime, hrs, mins = getsuninfo(location, testdate)

        print "Location:", location.name
        print "Date:", testdate.strftime("%a %x")
        print risetime.strftime("Sunrise %I:%M %p"), settime.strftime("- Sunset %I:%M %p (%Z)")
        print "daylight: %d:%02d" % (hrs,mins)
        print

    place = Place("My House", (-121.990278, 47.204444), timezone.Pacific)

    # test dates just before and after DST transitions
    print "pre 2007"
    print "========="
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2006, 4, 1))
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2006, 4, 2))
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2006, 10, 28))
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2006, 10, 29))

    print "2007"
    print "========="
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2007, 3, 10))
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2007, 3, 11))
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2007, 11, 3))
    unittest(place, datetime.date(2007, 11, 4))

Answer 2

A concise description of an algorithm to calculate the sunrise and sunset is provided by the United States Naval Observatory, available here:

http://edwilliams.org/sunrise_sunset_algorithm.htm

In addition to providing the date and location, you also need to select a Zenith angle (at which the sun will be considered to have "risen" or "set") - the page linked has several options.

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Update

Because the linked page is no longer available, I am quoting its text below. Note that the formulae included are in a pseudo-code-like form, rather than JavaScript.

Source:
    Almanac for Computers, 1990
    published by Nautical Almanac Office
    United States Naval Observatory
    Washington, DC 20392

Inputs:
    day, month, year:      date of sunrise/sunset
    latitude, longitude:   location for sunrise/sunset
    zenith:                Sun's zenith for sunrise/sunset
      offical      = 90 degrees 50'
      civil        = 96 degrees
      nautical     = 102 degrees
      astronomical = 108 degrees

    NOTE: longitude is positive for East and negative for West
        NOTE: the algorithm assumes the use of a calculator with the
        trig functions in "degree" (rather than "radian") mode. Most
        programming languages assume radian arguments, requiring back
        and forth convertions. The factor is 180/pi. So, for instance,
        the equation RA = atan(0.91764 * tan(L)) would be coded as RA
        = (180/pi)*atan(0.91764 * tan((pi/180)*L)) to give a degree
        answer with a degree input for L.


1. first calculate the day of the year

    N1 = floor(275 * month / 9)
    N2 = floor((month + 9) / 12)
    N3 = (1 + floor((year - 4 * floor(year / 4) + 2) / 3))
    N = N1 - (N2 * N3) + day - 30

2. convert the longitude to hour value and calculate an approximate time

    lngHour = longitude / 15

    if rising time is desired:
      t = N + ((6 - lngHour) / 24)
    if setting time is desired:
      t = N + ((18 - lngHour) / 24)

3. calculate the Sun's mean anomaly

    M = (0.9856 * t) - 3.289

4. calculate the Sun's true longitude

    L = M + (1.916 * sin(M)) + (0.020 * sin(2 * M)) + 282.634
    NOTE: L potentially needs to be adjusted into the range [0,360) by adding/subtracting 360

5a. calculate the Sun's right ascension

    RA = atan(0.91764 * tan(L))
    NOTE: RA potentially needs to be adjusted into the range [0,360) by adding/subtracting 360

5b. right ascension value needs to be in the same quadrant as L

    Lquadrant  = (floor( L/90)) * 90
    RAquadrant = (floor(RA/90)) * 90
    RA = RA + (Lquadrant - RAquadrant)

5c. right ascension value needs to be converted into hours

    RA = RA / 15

6. calculate the Sun's declination

    sinDec = 0.39782 * sin(L)
    cosDec = cos(asin(sinDec))

7a. calculate the Sun's local hour angle

    cosH = (cos(zenith) - (sinDec * sin(latitude))) / (cosDec * cos(latitude))

    if (cosH >  1) 
      the sun never rises on this location (on the specified date)
    if (cosH < -1)
      the sun never sets on this location (on the specified date)

7b. finish calculating H and convert into hours

    if if rising time is desired:
      H = 360 - acos(cosH)
    if setting time is desired:
      H = acos(cosH)

    H = H / 15

8. calculate local mean time of rising/setting

    T = H + RA - (0.06571 * t) - 6.622

9. adjust back to UTC

    UT = T - lngHour
    NOTE: UT potentially needs to be adjusted into the range [0,24) by adding/subtracting 24

10. convert UT value to local time zone of latitude/longitude

    localT = UT + localOffset