Sunrise / Sunset function not accurate...

[Arty Ziff]

I've been working a lot with time calculations, and have a few that require sunrise / sunset.

 

All of the online sources such as the Navy Observatory and just Googling consistently produce the same numbers.

 

However, using the PHP sunrise sunset functions, I can never reproduce what I'm seeing from other sources.

 

One of the variables is the Zenith. 90 is often used as a "ball-park", but usually it's more accurate around 90.833.

 

In any case, even adjusting the Zenith, I'm unable to get anything closer than a few minutes to online sources consistently.

 

My neck of the woods is Seattle / Tacoma, specifically the Lakewood area around McChord Air Force Base.

 

Here's a sample of the code from a class I wrote to test the PHP function...

 

 

public function sunrise() {

$sunriseL = date_sunrise(time(),SUNFUNCS_RET_STRING,47.2529,-122.4443,90.833,-($z_offset));

$sunrise[0] = $sunriseL;

$sunrise_array = explode(":",$sunriseL); 


$sunriseZ_hr = $sunrise_array[0] + $z_offset; // Add Z offset to local time...

if ($sunriseZ_hr >= 24) { $sunriseZ_hr = $sunriseZ_hr - 24; }

if (strlen($sunriseZ_hr) == 1) {$sunriseZ_hr = str_pad($sunriseZ_hr,2,"0",STR_PAD_LEFT); } 
 
$sunrise[1] = $sunriseZ_hr . ":" . $sunrise_array[1];

return $sunrise; // Return local and Z in an array...

}

 

 

Any ideas why PHP sunrise / sunset don't reproduce what other sources say?

 

In the end, the sunrise / sunset algorithm is available and not all that complex, I can write my own function and get better accuracy. But that really astonishes me that the PHP functions are inconsistent with *everyone* else.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Arty Ziff

[ignace]

$z_offset is undefined. Please turn on error_reporting like so:

 

error_reporting(-1);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

 

Also what is your date.timezone setting?

 

echo date_default_timezone_get();