Day and night map of the world
The map shows which part of the Earth is lit by the Sun right now and which is in darkness. The shaded area is night, the softer bands are twilight, and the ☀ marker is the point where the Sun is directly overhead. Drag the slider to move through the day, or tap the map to see the local time at any point.
Questions and answers
Why is the day-night line curved?
The boundary between day and night — the terminator — is a great circle on the globe. On a flat map it appears as a curve, and its shape changes through the year: near the equinoxes it is almost vertical, near the solstices it bends strongly toward the poles, which is why one pole has a polar day and the other a polar night.
What are the twilight bands?
When the Sun is just below the horizon the sky is still bright. The map shows three twilight zones: civil (Sun up to 6° below the horizon — you can still read outdoors), nautical (6–12°) and astronomical (12–18°). Beyond 18° it is full night.
Where is the Sun directly overhead?
The ☀ marker is the subsolar point. It moves westward around the Earth once a day and drifts between the tropics through the year — it is on the equator at the equinoxes and reaches 23.4° north or south at the solstices.
Sun position is computed astronomically in your browser; time zones — IANA database; map — OpenStreetMap / OpenFreeMap.