The last sunset on mainland Europe

Abstract

Certain coastal localities attempt to attract tourists by claiming to have the earliest sunrise or latest sunset in their country or even continent. This article documents the places in mainland Europe where the sun sets latest during the year. In contradiction to the naïve assumption that the sun always sets latest at the westernmost point, the point of last sunset changes cyclically over the course of a year due to the changing orientation of the axis of the Earth with respect to the sun. On mainland Europe, the focus of this study, between the winter and summer solstices the last sunset shifts successively from Cabo de São Vicente (Portugal) to Cabo da Roca (Portugal) to Cabo Touriñán (Spain) to a site near Aglapsvik (Norway) to a location in the Norwegian municipality of Måsøy south of Havøysund; and it shifts back again between the summer and winter solstices. There are even 2 days of the year (24th April and 18th August) on which the last sunset of mainland Europe coincides with the last sunset of mainland Africa, at a site in Western Sahara near Cap Blanc. A similar analysis of the first sunrise in Spain is also done