Almanac · Seasons

December solstice 2026

The December solstice is on Mon 21 Dec 2026 at 20:50 UTC: the instant the Sun stands farthest south of the sky’s equator, overhead at noon at 23.4°S, the Tropic of Capricorn. It begins astronomical winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern.

• Solstice Mon 21 Dec 2026, 20:50 UTC
• Sun overhead at noon 23.4°S The Sun’s declination then: −23.44°
• Daylight 15 h 37 min at 45°S 5 h 52 min at 60°N

The day at each latitude

Sunrise and sunset on Mon 21 Dec 2026 at each latitude, how long the Sun is up, which way to face to see it rise and set, and how high it climbs at noon. Times are local solar time: your clock may differ by up to an hour or two, by your time zone.

How we worked it out: the solstice is the instant the Sun’s apparent longitude reaches 270°, found to the second from the Earth’s place in VSOP87, carried to the equinox of date and given nutation and aberration, as Meeus works these instants out; the tests hold it to the U.S. Naval Observatory’s time within the minute. Sunrise and sunset are the Sun’s upper edge on a level horizon, with refraction, as /tonight gives them, at Greenwich’s longitude, and the bearings are measured from due east and due west.

• J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, ch. 27: the instants of the equinoxes and solstices, from the Sun’s apparent longitude
• P. Bretagnon and G. Francou, VSOP87: the Earth’s place, which the Sun’s is the reverse of, as the planets are seen from it
• U.S. Naval Observatory, Earth’s Seasons: the instants the tests hold these to, within the minute
• J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, ch. 15 and 25: sunrise and sunset, as /tonight gives them

All equinoxes and solstices · December solstice 2025 · December solstice 2027 · Why we have seasons · The year’s sky almanac · Tonight