Great light in Cary isn't luck — it's timing. This page calculates today's sunset, sunrise, golden hour and blue hour for Cary's exact location, live, and works for any date you choose. 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: Find an open west-facing view for sunset and an east-facing one for sunrise — buildings and hills eat the last 15 minutes of light in most city centers.
Golden hour in Cary is the hour before sunset — and sunset here runs from 5:01 PM in November to 8:35 PM in June. The table below gives the exact window for every month, in Cary's own time zone.
Use the live times above for today's exact window. As a rule, evening golden hour in Cary starts about 38 minutes before sunset and ends at sunset. In June that is 7:55 PM – 8:33 PM; in December it is 4:23 PM – 5:02 PM.
Sunset in Cary is earliest at 5:01 PM on November 29 and latest at 8:35 PM on June 23, a swing of about 4 hours across the year.
Golden hour lasts about 38 minutes in midsummer and 39 minutes in midwinter. The longest evening golden hour falls in January at about 39 minutes; the shortest is in March at about 34 minutes.
| Month | Sunrise | Sunset | Golden hour (evening) | Length | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7:24 AM | 5:25 PM | 4:46 PM – 5:25 PM | 39 min | 10h 01m |
| February | 7:01 AM | 5:56 PM | 5:21 PM – 5:56 PM | 35 min | 10h 55m |
| March | 7:25 AM | 7:22 PM | 6:48 PM – 7:22 PM | 34 min | 11h 57m |
| April | 6:42 AM | 7:48 PM | 7:14 PM – 7:48 PM | 34 min | 13h 06m |
| May | 6:09 AM | 8:13 PM | 7:37 PM – 8:13 PM | 36 min | 14h 04m |
| June | 5:58 AM | 8:33 PM | 7:55 PM – 8:33 PM | 38 min | 14h 35m |
| July | 6:10 AM | 8:31 PM | 7:54 PM – 8:31 PM | 37 min | 14h 21m |
| August | 6:34 AM | 8:04 PM | 7:29 PM – 8:04 PM | 35 min | 13h 31m |
| September | 6:57 AM | 7:22 PM | 6:48 PM – 7:22 PM | 34 min | 12h 24m |
| October | 7:21 AM | 6:39 PM | 6:04 PM – 6:39 PM | 35 min | 11h 18m |
| November | 6:51 AM | 5:07 PM | 4:30 PM – 5:07 PM | 37 min | 10h 17m |
| December | 7:17 AM | 5:02 PM | 4:23 PM – 5:02 PM | 39 min | 9h 45m |
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.
