2026 · all times UTC

Solstices and equinoxes

The exact moments the Sun reaches the four turning points of the year, found by searching the ephemeris rather than copied from a table. Named for the month as well as the season, because the seasons are the other way round south of the equator.

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September equinox

Wednesday, 23 September 2026 at 00:05 UTC

Autumn equinox in the northern hemisphere, spring equinox in the southern.

All four in 2026

  • March equinox

    20 Mar, 14:46 UTC

    Spring equinox north, autumn equinox south

    The Sun crosses the celestial equator going north. Day and night are close to equal everywhere on Earth, which is what "equinox" means.

    The start of the tropical zodiac. The whole sign system is anchored to this moment, which is why the signs no longer line up with the constellations they were named after. About Aries

  • June solstice

    21 Jun, 08:24 UTC

    Summer solstice north, winter solstice south

    The Sun reaches its furthest point north. The longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest in the southern, and for a few days around it the Sun barely changes height at noon, which is where the name comes from: the Sun stands still.

    The Sun enters Cancer, the sign it is said to have the least in common with, and the year turns from lengthening to shortening on the day it is strongest. About Cancer

  • September equinox

    23 Sept, 00:05 UTC

    Autumn equinox north, spring equinox south

    The Sun crosses back over the celestial equator going south, and day and night are close to equal again.

    The Sun enters Libra, opposite where the zodiac began. The tradition treats the two equinoxes as a pair rather than as separate events. About Libra

  • December solstice

    21 Dec, 20:50 UTC

    Winter solstice north, summer solstice south

    The Sun reaches its furthest point south. The shortest day in the northern hemisphere, and the point the year turns back towards the light.

    The Sun enters Capricorn. Most of the midwinter festivals sit within a few days of this, which is a fact about the Sun rather than about any one of them. About Capricorn

How this was worked out

Each of these four moments is the Sun reaching 0 degrees of a cardinal sign: Aries in March, Cancer in June, Libra in September and Capricorn in December. That is the same calculation the rest of this site uses for any planet entering any sign, run for the Sun and bisected to the minute, so the times are exact rather than rounded to a day.

It also means the astronomy and the astrology here are not two claims. The tropical zodiac is defined by the March equinox, so saying the Sun enters Aries and saying the equinox has happened are the same statement said twice.

Questions about solstices and equinoxes

Including the one about day and night not being quite equal.

  • The moment the Sun reaches its furthest point north or south. For a few days around it the Sun barely changes height at noon, which is where the word comes from: it means the Sun stands still. The June solstice gives the northern hemisphere its longest day and the southern its shortest.

  • Close, but not exactly. The word means equal night, and the Sun does cross the celestial equator, but sunrise and sunset are measured from the first and last edge of the Sun rather than its centre, and the atmosphere bends its light so it is visible slightly before it has really risen. Between them those two effects add several minutes of daylight, so the genuinely equal day falls a few days earlier or later depending on your latitude.

  • Because the year is not a whole number of days. The Earth takes about 365.2422 days to go round the Sun, so each solstice happens roughly six hours later than the last until a leap day pulls it back. That is what keeps the dates drifting across a two or three day range rather than sitting still.

  • Because it is only summer in half the world. The June solstice is midsummer in Britain and midwinter in Australia, so naming it after the month is the only name that is true everywhere. Both seasonal names are given below with the hemisphere they belong to.