<p>What you're looking for is the latitude and longitude of the subsolar point.</p>

<p>Calculating it with accuracy is somewhat complicated.  Here is a python library that has routines to do it for you:
<a href="http://rhodesmill.org/pyephem/" rel="nofollow">http://rhodesmill.org/pyephem/</a></p>

<p>You could also possibly query this information from other sites.</p>

<p>If you really want to work it out on your own, I suggest "Spherical Astronomy" by Robin M. Green published by Cambridge University Press as a starting point.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-23T23:55:02.287Z
PyEphem is fantastic. You can do so many things with it. Calculate the positions of all important celestial bodies, at arbitrary times, with just a few lines of Python code. Awesome.
Florin Andrei
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-08T20:52:33.360Z
Also finding this answer helpful, but as an update, it looks like PyEphem is recommending to now use https://rhodesmill.org/skyfield/
cchapman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-24T20:47:02.963Z
2015-01-24T20:47:02.963Z
John
<p>Searching is easy to find terminator line (frontier between day and night) or the position of the sun in the sky given a position on the earth and a time; but I can't find how to obtain where is the zenith of the sun given a date (and time).</p>

<p>I need to obtain the center of the illuminated zone of the earth (latitude and longitude) at a given time. (Well, actually I need the opposite, the Nadir, but with one you can calculate easily the other).</p>

<p>Any knows the function?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<the-sun><coordinate>
Given a date obtain latitude and longitude where is the sun zenith
Black Cid
# Given a date obtain latitude and longitude where is the sun zenith

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-11-11)

Searching is easy to find terminator line (frontier between day and night) or the position of the sun in the sky given a position on the earth and a time; but I can't find how to obtain where is the zenith of the sun given a date (and time).

I need to obtain the center of the illuminated zone of the earth (latitude and longitude) at a given time. (Well, actually I need the opposite, the Nadir, but with one you can calculate easily the other).

Any knows the function?

Thank you.

**Tags:** the-sun, coordinate

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-01-24. Score: 2

What you're looking for is the latitude and longitude of the subsolar point.

Calculating it with accuracy is somewhat complicated. Here is a python library that has routines to do it for you:
<http://rhodesmill.org/pyephem/>

You could also possibly query this information from other sites.

If you really want to work it out on your own, I suggest "Spherical Astronomy" by Robin M. Green published by Cambridge University Press as a starting point.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: PyEphem is fantastic. You can do so many things with it. Calculate the positions of all important celestial bodies, at arbitrary times, with just a few lines of Python code. Awesome.  
> **username_3**: Also finding this answer helpful, but as an update, it looks like PyEphem is recommending to now use https://rhodesmill.org/skyfield/  

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