The sun rises due east only around the equinoxes

October 20, 2026 · 5 min read

“The sun rises in the east” is true as a rule of thumb and wrong most days of the year. Exactly due east is a direction the sun only approaches around the March and September equinoxes. The rest of the time it rises somewhere to the north or south of east, and the swing can be large.

Why the rising point moves

The Earth’s axis is tilted about 23.4° relative to its orbit. As the Earth goes around the sun, this tilt makes the sun’s position in the sky drift north and south over the year: its declination runs from about +23.4° at the June solstice to −23.4° at the December solstice, passing through zero at the equinoxes.

When the sun’s declination is zero, it rises close to due east and sets close to due west for everyone on Earth. When it is north of the celestial equator, it rises north of east; when it is south, it rises south of east.

How large the swing is

The size of the swing depends on latitude.

• At the equator, the rising point moves 23.4° either side of east: from east-northeast in June to east-southeast in December.
• At 50° north, roughly the latitude of Frankfurt or Kraków, it moves much further: about 38° either side of east, so the midsummer sun rises in the northeast and the midwinter sun in the southeast.
• Near the Arctic Circle, the swing approaches 90°: the midsummer sun skims the northern horizon and the midwinter sun barely clears the southern one.

People who watch the sunrise from the same window all year see this as a slow sweep along the skyline, fast around the equinoxes, almost stationary around the solstices. Solstice comes from Latin words meaning “sun standing still”.

Not exactly east even at the equinox

Two small effects mean the equinox sunrise is not precisely due east. Refraction lifts the sun’s image so it appears before it truly reaches the horizon, and sunrise is defined by the sun’s upper edge, not its centre. Both make the sun appear slightly north of east at the March and September equinoxes, by a fraction of a degree at mid-latitudes. Many people use the equinox sunrise to check “east” on a skyline, and for that it is close enough.

Monuments built on the swing

Builders have used the rising point for thousands of years. Stonehenge faces the midsummer sunrise; the main axis of Angkor Wat in Cambodia lines up with the equinox sunrise seen from its western entrance; and Newgrange in Ireland admits the midwinter sunrise into its inner chamber.

The numbers for real cities

Calculated on an ideal flat horizon, the azimuth of sunrise (degrees clockwise from true north, with due east at 90°) at the June solstice of 2027 and the December solstice of 2026:

In Singapore the sunrise wanders about 47 degrees over the year; in London about 79; in Reykjavík about 132, from north-northeast to south-southeast. In the southern hemisphere the pattern is the same but the seasons are reversed: in Sydney the sun rises furthest north of east in June, which is midwinter there, and furthest south in December, in high summer.

When it really is due east

Because of refraction and the upper-edge rule, the morning when the sun rises closest to exactly 90° is not the equinox itself but a day or two before the March equinox and a day or two after the September one in the northern hemisphere. Calculated for 2027, in both London and New York the sunrise is closest to due east on 19 March, the day before the equinox of 20 March, and on 24 or 25 September, just after the equinox of 23 September. In Sydney the order is reversed: the due-east sunrise comes on 21 March and 21 September. On the equinox morning itself, the London sunrise is about two thirds of a degree north of east, a bit more than the width of the sun.

Fast in spring, still in summer

Around the equinoxes the rising point moves quickly. In London it shifts by about 0.6 degrees from one morning to the next in late March, more than the sun’s own diameter, so a sunrise that sits exactly behind a chimney one day is visibly beside it the next. Around the June solstice the daily change is a few thousandths of a degree; for about a week the sun appears to rise from the same place. This is the practical reason solstice alignments in monuments are easier to observe than equinox ones: the target holds still.

Using it to find your way

Navigators and walkers have long used the rising and setting sun as a compass. The method works if you correct for the season: at mid-northern latitudes in summer, the sun rises well north of east and sets well north of west, and in winter it does the reverse. Near the equinoxes the error is small. At midday, for anyone north of the tropics, the sun is due south; in the southern hemisphere it is due north. A sunrise direction checked against a map once is a reliable bearing for the rest of the week.

Why it matters for a dedicated sunrise

For a sunrise over a particular view, the direction can matter as much as the time. A window facing southeast sees the winter sun come up in frame and the summer sun rise out of sight to the north; a beach facing east sees the sun come straight out of the sea only around the equinoxes. The sky shown on each gift page is drawn for the exact point and moment, so the recipient can see where on the horizon their sunrise appears.

Where your sunrise will be

Every Resthe sunrise is calculated for a precise point, and on the gift page the sky at that moment shows where the sun is. If you want to know the time of the next sunrise at a window, a hill or a beach, pin it in The Sunrise.