THE SKY IN MOTION
Equinoxes, solstices,
eclipses and moons
Equinoxes, solstices, new and full Moons, and eclipses are the turning points of the year. Each is a precise astronomical event with a calculable moment, and each marks the start of a new phase that astrology reads as a natural point to begin or complete something.
Equinoxes and solstices
The equinoxes are the two moments each year when the Sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night are nearly equal everywhere. The solstices are the moments when the Sun reaches its furthest point north or south, giving the longest and shortest days.
Astrologically these are exact: the Sun entering Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn at zero degrees. The dates move by a day either way from year to year because a tropical year is about a quarter of a day longer than a calendar year — which is also why leap years exist.
In the northern hemisphere the March equinox opens spring and the June solstice opens summer; south of the equator the same moments open autumn and winter. The astronomy is shared, the season is local.
New and full Moons
A new Moon is the moment the Sun and Moon share the same degree of the zodiac; a full Moon is the moment they sit exactly opposite. The cycle takes about 29.5 days, so most months have one of each, and occasionally a month catches two full Moons.
Read by house rather than by sign alone, a lunation is more useful: the new Moon falls in a particular area of your chart, and the full Moon two weeks later falls in the opposite one. Beginning and completion, in a specific place.
Eclipses
An eclipse is a lunation that happens close to one of the lunar nodes — the two points where the Moon's orbit crosses the Sun's apparent path. A solar eclipse is a new Moon at a node, with the Moon covering the Sun. A lunar eclipse is a full Moon at a node, with the Earth's shadow falling on the Moon.
They arrive in pairs or triples, roughly every six months, in whichever pair of signs the nodes currently occupy. Astrologically they are read as the loudest lunations of the year, concentrated on the houses the nodes are crossing — and as endings that clear space rather than tidy beginnings.
Why exact moments matter
Every one of these events has a precise timestamp, and it falls on a different calendar date depending on your time zone. An eclipse late on the 21st in Los Angeles is the 22nd in Berlin. Any tool that shows you these dates should be converting to your own local time, not to a single fixed zone.
Kinastry calculates each of these events exactly, shows them on a rolling twelve-month timeline in your local time, marks the one happening today at the top of your page, and can export the year's turning points to your calendar.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions people ask
- What is the difference between an equinox and a solstice?
- An equinox is a moment when the Sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night are nearly equal; a solstice is a moment when the Sun reaches its furthest point north or south, producing the longest and shortest days of the year.
- Why do equinox and solstice dates change each year?
- A tropical year is about 365.24 days, so the exact moment drifts by roughly six hours each year and is reset by leap years, which can move the event onto a neighbouring calendar date.
- Why do eclipses come in pairs?
- Eclipses happen when a new or full Moon falls near a lunar node. The Sun passes each node about every six months, so eclipses arrive in clusters roughly twice a year, in the pair of signs the nodes occupy.
KEEP READING
Transits and horoscopes
A transit is a planet's current position touching a placement in your birth chart. Today's sky is identical for everyone, but it lands on a different part of each person's chart, which is why a genuine horoscope has to be built from your own birth details rather than your Sun sign alone.
The planets
In a birth chart, each planet describes a different function: a drive, an appetite, or a way of operating. The Sun and Moon are the luminaries, Mercury through Mars move quickly and shape daily personality, and Jupiter outward move slowly enough that their placements are partly generational.
Family astrology
Family astrology reads a household as a set of related charts rather than one chart at a time. It looks for signs and placements that repeat across generations, for the contacts between each pair, and for how the same day in the sky lands differently on each person in the same home.
Your own family's charts, calculated exactly and read gently.
Chart your family