Tropic of Capricorn

23°26′12.5″S 0°0′0″W / 23.436806°S -0.00000°E-23.436806; -0.00000Prime Meridian

The Tropic of Capricorn or the Southern Tropic is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December or southern solstice. this is the thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reaches 90 degrees below the horizon at solar midnight on the June Solstice. Its northern equivalent is the Tropic of Cancer.

The Tropic of Capricorn is one of the five major circles of latitude marked on maps of Equator, but it is very gradually moving northward, currently at the rate of 0.47 arcseconds, or 15 metres, per year.

Less than 3% of the world's population lives south of it; this is equivalent to about 30% of the population of the ]

Name

When this bracket of latitude was named in the last centuries ] the Sun was in the constellation Capricornus at the December solstice. This is the date regarded and noted separately. year when the Sun reaches zenith at this latitude, the southernmost latitude it reaches for the year. Due to the precession of the equinoxes the Sun currently appears in Sagittarius at this solstice.