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How to Find out When the Sun Sets

Sometimes you might catch a memorable, beautiful sunset from a special location and wonder exactly when you must return to catch another a week or a month later. According to the U.S. Naval Observatory website, "there is no single formula that can be used to accurately predict (sunset) times." The formulas that are in use involve complex trigonometric calculations. The simplest way to find out when the sun sets at a particular location, therefore, is to look up the time in one of several resources.

Instructions

- 1
  Go to the Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day or the Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year Web pages on the U.S. Naval Observatory website (aa.usno.navy.mil). Follow the on-screen instructions to look up the sunset time for a specific location on a particular day or year of your choosing.
- 2
  Purchase a current weather almanac for the region you want to look up. In addition to weather predictions and other information, weather almanacs contain a listing of sunset times.
- 3
  Check the weather section of the local daily newspaper. Newspapers often publish that day's sunset time in the paper.
- 4
  Go to the website operated by a local television news channel. Navigate to the weather section of the website. Many news channels publish an online local weather almanac that contains sunset times.
- 5
  Visit the "Sun" Web page on The Old Farmer's Almanac website. Use the "Rise &Set" tool on this page to look up the sunset time for a specific town or city for a specific day.

Astronomy