Sagittarius dates22 November to 21 December, Ophiuchus or not

The Sun enters Sagittarius at 240° of ecliptic longitude and leaves at 270°, the December solstice. For a US Eastern birth the start fell on 22 November in 60 of the 80 years from 1951 to 2030 and on 21 November in 20. Those 21 November starts are a recent habit. The 1950s had none and the 1960s had none; the first came in the 1970s, and the decade counts climb from there:

The end date is firmer. Capricorn began on 21 December in 57 of the 80 years and in all 10 of the years 2021 to 2030, US Eastern time, and the last 22 December end on the East Coast came in the 2010s. London is still split down the middle, 40 years on the 21st and 40 on the 22nd, and Sydney, eleven hours ahead of London in December, mostly sees the change on 22 December (69 years).

The Sun stays in Sagittarius for 29.55 days on average, between 29.55 and 29.56 across 1951 to 2030. Only Capricorn, at 29.44, is shorter; Aquarius, at 29.59, comes a whisker behind. Cancer, at the other end of the year, takes 31.45 days, almost two days longer.

The cause is Earth's orbit, which is slightly elliptical. Earth is closest to the Sun in the first days of January and moving fastest then, so the Sun's apparent motion through the signs either side of the new year is quicker. Sagittarius sits just before that closest point, Capricorn across it. The 30° are the same; the days needed to cross them are not.

A short sign holds fewer births, and Sagittarius holds fewer still than its length explains. The Shymea rarity study counted 4,945,436 Sagittarians among 62,187,026 US births from 2000 to 2014, 7.95%, the tenth of the twelve signs by size. On days alone the share would be 8.09%; the 2014 figure was 7.86%, a ratio of 0.971. One likely reason is the holidays. US births dip noticeably around Thanksgiving and Christmas, when fewer inductions and planned caesareans are booked, and both fall inside or beside Sagittarius.

Elsewhere it is rarer still. Sagittarius was twelfth of twelve in Canada in 2024 at 7.67%, the least common sign there, and eleventh in England and Wales in 2025 (7.83%) and in Australia in 2023 (7.64%, eleventh). New York City in 2024 put it tenth, at 8.09%.

Each row gives the instant the Sun entered Sagittarius in four places, and the instant it left in two. A birth between the two instants, in your own zone, is a Sagittarius. The November start shifts about six hours later each year and jumps back after a leap day, so the earliest starts are in leap years such as 2028, when the Sun arrives at 1:54 pm on 21 November in New York.

From 23 November to 20 December every birthday was Sagittarius in each year 1951 to 2030 in all four US zones, and from 24 November in the UK. The six edge days are below; for any of them, the zodiac sign calculator takes your date, birth time and town and gives the answer for that year.

22 November is the usual handover in US Eastern time, a change-over day in 60 of the 80 years and Sagittarius from midnight in another 20. 21 November was Scorpio all day in 60 years, but on the West Coast it was a change-over day in 31, so a Californian born on the 21st has a real chance of being a Sagittarius; the calculator settles which. The Scorpio dates, ending 21 or 22 November page covers that edge from the Scorpio side, and November zodiac signs lists the month day by day.

At the solstice end, 21 December was a change-over day in 57 years in US Eastern time and wholly Sagittarius in only 23, so a 21 December birthday needs the hour, and the sign calculator has every year's time. The Capricorn dates from the 21 December solstice and December zodiac signs pages pick up from there. A cusp birth belongs to one sign or the other. The tradition has no blended sign, only a Sun early or late in a sign.

Three outer planets passed through Sagittarius within living memory, and between them they cover most people born from 1970 to 2007. The Sagittarians among them carry the sign twice. Dates are DE442 ingresses in UTC.

Pluto's stay, 10 November 1995 to 26 January 2008, covers a large share of Generation Z: every Sagittarius born from 1995 to 2007 has Pluto in Sagittarius too. Neptune was there from 6 November 1970 to 19 January 1984, and Uranus joined it on 16 November 1981, so the Sagittarians of 1981 to 1983 have both outer planets in their sign.

1983 went further. Jupiter, the sign's ruler, was in Sagittarius from 26 December 1982 to 19 January 1984, so a Sagittarius born in late 1983 has the Sun, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune in one sign, a stellium that the stellium guide reads through the house it falls in. The 1985 to 1987 group has Saturn with Uranus instead.

The Sun enters Sagittarius on 22 November 2027 at 13:16 UTC, 8:16 am Eastern on 22 November, and reaches the solstice and Capricorn on 22 December at 02:42 UTC. Mars gets there first, entering on 15 October (UTC), followed by Venus on 1 November and Mercury on 29 November, so the sign is already busy when the Sun arrives.

The Sagittarius New Moon is on 28 November at 5°39′, which is 10:24 pm EST on 27 November. Earlier, the Full Moon in Sagittarius on 19 June at 27°33′ falls on the Sun degree of people born around 19 December. Jupiter, the ruler, spends the first seven months in Leo, a fire sign trine to Sagittarius, before it moves into Virgo on 26 July and makes a square instead. The Sagittarius 2027 horoscope has the year in full, and the Sagittarius horoscope the current week.

Three ten-degree slices, each roughly ten days long, shifting by a day with the year like the sign.

In the older system of faces the first decan belongs to Mercury, the planet in detriment in this sign, then the Moon, then Saturn. The modern scheme gives Sagittarius, Aries and Leo, which reads as Jupiter, Mars and the Sun. The third decan, roughly 12 to 21 December, is the one that differs most between the two: Saturn's face on the doorstep of Capricorn in one scheme, the Sun's warmth in the other.

Gemini is the opposite sign and the mirror of rulers: Mercury at home there and in detriment here, Jupiter at home here and in detriment there. Gemini and Sagittarius is two talkers, one about facts and one about meaning. Aries and Leo share the fire triangle a trine away (Aries and Sagittarius, Leo and Sagittarius). Pisces shares Jupiter as ruler but sits square, so Sagittarius and Pisces has a common outlook and different habits.

Scorpio and Capricorn are the neighbours and, 30° apart, in aversion by the old rule. Scorpio and Sagittarius is a pairing people search for often; the Sun signs only open the question, and synastry compares the whole charts. All twelve signs and their dates are on the zodiac signs by date page.