Cusp dates

The Scorpio and Sagittarius cusp

The Scorpio and Sagittarius cusp falls on November 21 and November 22. Most tables give November 21 to Scorpio and November 22 to Sagittarius, but the Sun moves from one sign to the other at a single moment, and that moment changes from year to year.

The dates

Scorpio runs October 23–November 21 and Sagittarius runs November 22–December 21 in the standard tropical table this site uses for every tool and page. The cusp days are the last standard day of Scorpio and the first standard day of Sagittarius. If your birthday is on any other day you do not need this page. Your sign is in the Scorpio guide or the Sagittarius guide.

When the Sun enters Sagittarius, 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 →

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 Sagittarius drifts against the clock. In the data on this site it arrives 5 hours 53 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 November 21 or November 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 2028. The Sun entered Sagittarius at 18:54 UTC on November 21. In Vancouver the clocks read 11:54 am on November 21, so someone born in Vancouver later that day was born a Sagittarius even though the date on their birth certificate is the last standard day of Scorpio.

It works the other way too. In 2026 the change reached Toronto at 2:23 am local time on November 22, so a baby born in Toronto on November 22 before 2:23 am is still a Scorpio, even though most tables would call November 22 a Sagittarius 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

1. Find your birth date, the time on your birth record and the place you were born.
2. Convert that local time to UTC. Remember daylight saving time if it was in force that day.
3. Compare it with the time the Sun entered Sagittarius that year. Before that moment you are a Scorpio, and from it onward you are a Sagittarius.

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

In late November the Sun leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius, as northern autumn heads into early winter. Scorpio is fixed water ruled by Mars and, in modern astrology, by Pluto. Sagittarius is mutable fire ruled by Jupiter. This boundary moves from the zodiac's most private sign to one of its most open, and from water to fire.

How popular astrology reads this cusp

Popular astrology reads people born near this cusp as intense and adventurous: Scorpio's focus with Sagittarius's appetite for freedom. Gary Goldschneider's book The Secret Language of Birthdays calls the week around this change the Cusp of Revolution. It is common for someone born on November 21 or 22 to feel that Scorpio's loyalty and Sagittarius's honesty both fit. That is a reading of two neighbouring signs. Tradition gives one Sun sign based on the exact change time.

Read more

Read the Scorpio guide and the Sagittarius guide, see the November zodiac calendar, or go back to all 12 cusps.