Article
Article
Capricornus
Article By:
Pasachoff, Jay M. Hopkins Observatory, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Last reviewed:November 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.107400
The Sea Goat, a southern zodiacal constellation (see illustration). It is the source of the terrestrial name Tropic of Capricorn, for the parallel of latitude, about 23½° south of the Equator, where the Sun is overhead at noon on the day of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, about December 22). The winter solstice used to occur when the Sun was in Capricornus, but because of the precession of the equinoxes this point has moved to Sagittarius. See also: Precession of equinoxes; Sagittarius; Tropic of Capricorn; Zodiac
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