Cusp dates
The Sagittarius and Capricorn cusp
The Sagittarius and Capricorn cusp falls on December 21 and December 22. Most tables give December 21 to Sagittarius and December 22 to Capricorn, but the Sun moves from one sign to the other at a single moment, and that moment changes from year to year.
The dates
Sagittarius runs November 22–December 21 and Capricorn runs December 22–January 19 in the standard tropical table this site uses for every tool and page. The cusp days are the last standard day of Sagittarius and the first standard day of Capricorn. If your birthday is on any other day you do not need this page. Your sign is in the Sagittarius guide or the Capricorn guide.
When the Sun enters Capricorn, 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 | Dec 21, 20:50 UTC | Dec 21, 1:50 pm | Dec 21, 3:50 pm | Dec 21, 8:50 pm | Dec 22, 7:50 am |
| 2027 | Dec 22, 02:42 UTC | Dec 21, 7:42 pm | Dec 21, 9:42 pm | Dec 22, 2:42 am | Dec 22, 1:42 pm |
| 2028 | Dec 21, 08:20 UTC | Dec 21, 1:20 am | Dec 21, 3:20 am | Dec 21, 8:20 am | Dec 21, 7:20 pm |
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 Capricorn drifts against the clock. In the data on this site it arrives 5 hours 52 minutes later on the clock in 2027 than in 2026, and 18 hours 22 minutes earlier on the clock in 2028 than in 2027, because February 29 falls between the two dates. Leap days pull it back every four years, which is why the change keeps landing on December 21 or December 22 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 Capricorn at 20:50 UTC on December 21. In Vancouver the clocks read 1:50 pm on December 21, so someone born in Vancouver later that day was born a Capricorn even though the date on their birth certificate is the last standard day of Sagittarius.
It works the other way too. In 2026 the change reached Sydney at 7:50 am local time on December 22, so a baby born in Sydney on December 22 before 7:50 am is still a Sagittarius, even though most tables would call December 22 a Capricorn 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 Capricorn that year. Before that moment you are a Sagittarius, and from it onward you are a Capricorn.
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
The Sun's move into Capricorn is the December solstice, when the Sun reaches its furthest point south of the celestial equator. The northern hemisphere gets its shortest day and the southern hemisphere its longest. Astrologers call the point zero degrees Capricorn, the last of the four cardinal points. Sagittarius is mutable fire ruled by Jupiter. Capricorn is cardinal earth ruled by Saturn.
How popular astrology reads this cusp
Popular astrology reads people born near this cusp as big-picture dreamers with a practical streak: Sagittarius's optimism and Capricorn's discipline. Gary Goldschneider's book The Secret Language of Birthdays calls the week around this change the Cusp of Prophecy. Whatever you feel like, your Sun sign is set by the solstice time for your birth year.
Read more
Read the Sagittarius guide and the Capricorn guide, see the December zodiac calendar, or go back to all 12 cusps.