Amherst's golden hour is short, specific, and worth planning around. The times below are computed live for Amherst's exact coordinates (42.9784, -78.7998) and update automatically for any date you pick — sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour, all in local time. On this side of the country, sunrise is the underrated window — the sun comes up over the Atlantic side and morning golden hour is quieter than the evening one.
The month-by-month table below is in this city's own local time. The live times above follow your device's timezone. Mountains, ridgelines and buildings can shorten the usable window — scout your horizon.
Local tip: Golden hour moves every single day. If you're planning a shoot more than a week out, check the date itself — the window can shift by 20+ minutes.
Golden hour in Amherst is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 4:40 PM in December to 8:58 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Amherst's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Amherst starts about 44 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 8:12 PM – 8:56 PM; in December it is 3:55 PM – 4:41 PM.
Sunset in Amherst is earliest at 4:40 PM on December 4 and latest at 8:58 PM on June 22, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 44 minutes in midsummer and 46 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in December at about 46 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 37 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:43 AM | 5:06 PM | 4:21 PM – 5:06 PM | 45 min | 9h 23m |
| February | 7:12 AM | 5:46 PM | 5:06 PM – 5:46 PM | 40 min | 10h 34m |
| March | 7:27 AM | 7:21 PM | 6:44 PM – 7:21 PM | 37 min | 11h 55m |
| April | 6:33 AM | 7:57 PM | 7:19 PM – 7:57 PM | 38 min | 13h 25m |
| May | 5:51 AM | 8:31 PM | 7:50 PM – 8:31 PM | 41 min | 14h 40m |
| June | 5:35 AM | 8:56 PM | 8:12 PM – 8:56 PM | 44 min | 15h 21m |
| July | 5:49 AM | 8:52 PM | 8:10 PM – 8:52 PM | 42 min | 15h 02m |
| August | 6:21 AM | 8:17 PM | 7:38 PM – 8:17 PM | 39 min | 13h 56m |
| September | 6:54 AM | 7:24 PM | 6:47 PM – 7:24 PM | 37 min | 12h 30m |
| October | 7:28 AM | 6:32 PM | 5:53 PM – 6:32 PM | 39 min | 11h 04m |
| November | 7:07 AM | 4:51 PM | 4:08 PM – 4:51 PM | 43 min | 9h 44m |
| December | 7:39 AM | 4:41 PM | 3:55 PM – 4:41 PM | 46 min | 9h 02m |
Golden hour is the stretch just after sunrise and just before sunset, when the low sun turns hard daylight into soft, warm, directional light — the most flattering natural light for portraits, real estate, product and landscape photography. Blue hour follows sunset (and precedes sunrise): a short window of deep, even blue that's ideal for twilight real estate shots and skylines. Both windows change with latitude and season, which is why this page computes them live instead of guessing.
Kanyon Studio is a San Diego photography and video studio — golden hour is our home field. Brand shoots, products, real estate and portraits, planned around exactly this light.
