Cusp dates
The Capricorn and Aquarius cusp
The Capricorn and Aquarius cusp falls on January 19 and January 20. Most tables give January 19 to Capricorn and January 20 to Aquarius, but the Sun moves from one sign to the other at a single moment, and that moment changes from year to year.
The dates
Capricorn runs December 22–January 19 and Aquarius runs January 20–February 18 in the standard tropical table this site uses for every tool and page. The cusp days are the last standard day of Capricorn and the first standard day of Aquarius. If your birthday is on any other day you do not need this page. Your sign is in the Capricorn guide or the Aquarius guide.
When the Sun enters Aquarius, 2026 to 2028
Exact times from the ingress data on this site, shown in UTC and in four local time zones.
Swipe the table sideways →
| Year | UTC | Vancouver | Toronto | London | Sydney |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Jan 20, 01:45 UTC | Jan 19, 5:45 pm | Jan 19, 8:45 pm | Jan 20, 1:45 am | Jan 20, 12:45 pm |
| 2027 | Jan 20, 07:30 UTC | Jan 20, 12:30 am | Jan 20, 2:30 am | Jan 20, 7:30 am | Jan 20, 6:30 pm |
| 2028 | Jan 20, 13:22 UTC | Jan 20, 6:22 am | Jan 20, 8:22 am | Jan 20, 1:22 pm | Jan 21, 12:22 am |
Why the year matters
The Sun takes about 365 days, 5 hours and 49 minutes to come back to the same point on the ecliptic, but a calendar year has 365 days, or 366 in a leap year. So the moment the Sun enters Aquarius drifts against the clock. In the data on this site it arrives 5 hours 45 minutes later on the clock in 2027 than in 2026, and 5 hours 52 minutes later on the clock in 2028 than in 2027. Leap days pull it back every four years, which is why the change keeps landing on January 19 or January 20 instead of wandering off. The Moon and the other planets tug the Earth slightly, so the figures are never quite regular.
Why birth time and time zone matter
Take 2026. The Sun entered Aquarius at 01:45 UTC on January 20. In Vancouver the clocks read 5:45 pm on January 19, so someone born in Vancouver later that day was born an Aquarius even though the date on their birth certificate is the last standard day of Capricorn.
It works the other way too. In 2026 the change reached Sydney at 12:45 pm local time on January 20, so a baby born in Sydney on January 20 before 12:45 pm is still a Capricorn, even though most tables would call January 20 an Aquarius birthday.
This is why the table above gives four cities. The same instant falls at different local times, and near midnight it falls on different dates. Daylight saving time moves the local clock as well, and the times above already allow for it.
How to check your sign
- Find your birth date, the time on your birth record and the place you were born.
- Convert that local time to UTC. Remember daylight saving time if it was in force that day.
- Compare it with the time the Sun entered Aquarius that year. Before that moment you are a Capricorn, and from it onward you are an Aquarius.
For 2026, 2027 and 2028 the birthday sign lookup and the year calendars (2026, 2027, 2028) list the exact times. The data on this site covers those three years only. For any other birth year you need an ephemeris or a chart calculator that takes your birth time and place.
Where this cusp sits in the year
Around January 19 or 20 the Sun moves from Capricorn to Aquarius in the depths of northern winter. This is the one boundary in the zodiac where the traditional ruler does not change: Saturn rules both Capricorn and Aquarius. Modern astrology gives Aquarius Uranus as well. Capricorn is cardinal earth and Aquarius is fixed air, so the element and modality change even though the old ruler stays.
How popular astrology reads this cusp
Popular astrology reads someone born near this cusp as ambitious and unconventional: Capricorn's drive with Aquarius's independence. Gary Goldschneider's book The Secret Language of Birthdays calls the week around this change the Cusp of Mystery and Imagination. Because Saturn rules both sides traditionally, astrologers who use the older system often see more in common here than at other cusps. You still have one Sun sign, set by the exact change time.
Read more
Read the Capricorn guide and the Aquarius guide, see the January zodiac calendar, or go back to all 12 cusps.