today
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free tool · New York City, USA — MoMA
New York City, MoMA for couples: sunset and golden hour by date
Pick your date: the sunset, the golden hour, the blue hour and your hour at New York City, MoMA, in local time.
next weekend
- golden hour
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- sunset
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- blue hour
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- sunrise
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next weekend
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Times are New York City local time (America/New_York), worked out from the sun’s position for this place (the NOAA method), good to about a minute on a flat horizon. Golden hour is the last hour before sunset; blue hour runs from sunset to the end of civil twilight.
the exact stay, spot and hour: the plan
$9- 3 stays
- 3 shots at the hour
- 2 days
- 3 tables
free, before you go
A small painting on the fifth floor, a quiet room before the crowd comes, and the two of you close enough to share one sky.
In the reel: A couple, arm around waist, standing in a warm gallery in front of Van Gogh's The Starry Night.
The Starry Night hangs at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, in Gallery 501 on the fifth floor, the 1880s–1940s rooms (the museum re-hangs now and then, so check the collection page the week you go). The painting is small, 73 by 92 cm, and draws a crowd from the first minutes, so the empty-gallery frame in the reel is a timing problem, not a luck problem: you can stand exactly here, and for about ten minutes it can be yours.
When to go
Any month, because the room is indoors; our quietest mornings were in January, February and early September. On Fridays the museum stays open to 20:30 and the last hour is calm; New York State residents get in free on Friday evenings, 17:30–20:30, booked ahead online (moma.org, October 2026).
The hour: 10:30 to about 10:45 on a weekday: be in the 53rd Street line by 10:15 with timed tickets on your phone and go straight up. The other window is the last 45 minutes before the 17:30 close (19:45–20:30 on Fridays), when the tour groups have gone.
Avoid: Weekend afternoons and the free Friday evening if you want the empty frame; they are lovely for the buzz, not the stillness. Flash, tripods and selfie sticks, which the museum does not allow. Turning the wrong way off the fifth-floor escalator, which cost us a minute we did not have.
New York City, month by month
The 15th of each month, local time.
| date | sunrise | golden hour | sunset | blue hour ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | 07:07 | 17:15 | 18:15 | 18:43 |
| Nov 2026 | 06:42 | 15:37 | 16:37 | 17:07 |
| Dec 2026 | 07:12 | 15:29 | 16:29 | 17:00 |
| Jan 2027 | 07:18 | 15:52 | 16:52 | 17:23 |
| Feb 2027 | 06:50 | 16:30 | 17:30 | 17:58 |
| Mar 2027 | 07:07 | 18:02 | 19:02 | 19:29 |
| Apr 2027 | 06:17 | 18:35 | 19:35 | 20:03 |
| May 2027 | 05:38 | 19:06 | 20:06 | 20:37 |
| Jun 2027 | 05:23 | 19:28 | 20:28 | 21:02 |
| Jul 2027 | 05:37 | 19:26 | 20:26 | 20:58 |
| Aug 2027 | 06:05 | 18:54 | 19:54 | 20:23 |
| Sep 2027 | 06:36 | 18:05 | 19:05 | 19:32 |
the hour, every week
the weekly note: one place and its hour, one story, one tip. a tap in the first mail confirms it.