Fixed night → day

[WIREFRAME] Static. Dark until 6am, then a hard step to the gold day plateau.

A hard line at the clock

Dark night, then gold snaps on exactly at the fixed 6am sunrise and holds flat. Maximum legibility of the anchor, but the step reads as a band fill — a little abrupt for 'light arriving'.

[WIREFRAME] Static. ~1h dawn fade at fixed 6am, then a flat gold day plateau.

Light arriving, then held

The recommended tuning. A soft ~1-hour fade centered on the fixed 6am sunrise, then the gold holds flat through the day portion — never building, never competing with the bars. Reads as dawn, anchored to real time.

[WIREFRAME] Static. Brighter at the 6am crossing, settles to a dim day plateau.

A little emphasis on the crossing

Same fixed model, but the sunrise moment is a touch brighter before settling to a dimmer daytime hold. Draws the eye to the actual transition. Risk: the bump can read as encoding something — kept subtle.

[WIREFRAME] Static. Sunset ramp near the top + sunrise ramp + day plateau.

Both edges, for wider axes

If a chart's axis starts before 8pm, the sunset transition becomes visible near the top. Same fixed model with both ramps drawn. On the typical 9pm-start axis the sunset edge is mostly off-screen, so this collapses to B.

[WIREFRAME] Static. Same model, lowest alpha for the most restrained read.

The quietest version

The fixed night→day model at the lowest workable opacity — present as an anchor when you look for it, nearly absent otherwise. Safest if the worry is the gold competing with the bars across the day band.