Sunrise, Sunset & Solar Noon in Wellington

These sunrise, sunset, and solar-noon times for Wellington are computed with the NOAA solar position algorithm from the city's latitude (-41.2866°) and longitude (174.7756°), then converted to local time in the Pacific/Auckland timezone. Today's figures update automatically in your browser; the year-round table is a fixed reference so the page stays fast and consistent.

Solar noon is the moment the Sun crosses Wellington's meridian and reaches its highest point in the sky — not necessarily 12:00 on the clock. The offset comes from the city's position within its timezone plus the equation of time, a correction for Earth's elliptical orbit and axial tilt that can move solar noon up to 16 minutes either side of clock noon. The max sun altitude is how high the Sun climbs at that moment.

The direction of sunrise and sunset swings north and south through the year: near the June solstice the Sun rises in the north-east and sets in the north-west; near the December solstice it rises and sets well to the south. Day length changes because of Earth's 23.5° axial tilt — around the June solstice the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the Sun for its longest days; around the December solstice it tilts away for its shortest. At the equinoxes day and night are close to equal everywhere.