Gild - Golden Hour

Gild shows you today's light on one screen. An arc of the sun's path across the sky, with golden hour and blue hour shaded along it, a marker where the sun is right now, and the day's times listed underneath - eight of them, from first light to last light. That is the whole app. Nothing to configure, nothing to set up. You open it, you look, you put it away. WORKED OUT, NOT LOOKED UP Every time on the screen is calculated on your phone from where you are and what day it is. No forecast, no server, no waiting for a network. The engine is checked against published tables from the US Naval Observatory and NOAA at twelve locations from Quito to Tromsø, and agrees with them to within two minutes - except where the sun grazes the horizon so slowly that no method can do better. THE ARC IS TO SCALE The height of the arc is how high the sun actually gets, so a June arc towers over a December one and a tropical noon draws in full rather than flattening against the top of the frame. The apex is solar noon rather than twelve o'clock - in Britain in June those are over an hour apart. ANY CITY, ON ITS OWN CLOCK Search for a town or a city and see its light on its own clock. Auckland viewed from London shows Auckland's date and Auckland's times. Searching returns places, not streets. Nothing is saved: close the app and you are back where you are standing. THE FAR NORTH AND SOUTH ARE HANDLED Polar day, polar night and the long summer weeks with no true darkness all draw properly. Where a boundary genuinely does not occur, its row shows a dash and stays in the list rather than vanishing or inventing a time. Reykjavík in June has a sunrise and a sunset but no blue hour at all. Tromsø in December has no sunrise. Gild says so instead of guessing. LIGHT AND DARK Two appearances, Ephemeris and Nocturne, taken from your system setting. Free, with no adverts, no subscription and no in-app purchases.