Sunrise and sunset on the Cocos Islands

Average length of day in West Island

      sunshine duration       twilight phase

Sunrise and sunset in the most important cities of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands

The cities are ordered by their geographic position from east to west, so in an approximate direction of the sun course. Since the orbit of the sun is elliptical, sunrise or sunset never happen on a whole longitude at the same time. All data given for May 19th., localtime on the Cocos Islands

Sunrise and sunset by month (West Island)

Duration of the sunset

The distance from the equator and the path of the sun determines not only the time of sunrise and sunset. The farther a country is from the equator, the more oblique the sun's path is to the horizon. And this causes a different duration that a sunset takes. West Island lies on the 12th degree of southern latitude and thus a good distance from the equator. While a sunset in the northern USA or central Europe can take almost an hour, on the Cocos Islands it only lasts an average of 23 minutes. The Cocos Islands is so close to the equator that there is no noticeable difference even between June and December.

International cities for comparison