Tropic of Capricorn

From Freepedia

Tropic of Capricorn is also the name of a novel by Henry Miller, first published in 1939.

Image:WorldMapLongLat-special-lats-emph-TropicofCapricorn-non.png The Tropic of Capricorn is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It is the parallel of latitude at 23° 26' 22" south of the Equator, and is the farthest southern latitude that the sun can appear directly overhead, occurring on the December solstice. Its northern hemisphere equivalent is the Tropic of Cancer. Latitudes south of the Tropic of Capricorn are in the Southern Temperate Zone. North of this line are the Tropics.

It is called the Tropic of Capricorn because when it was named about 2000 years ago, the sun was entering the constellation Capricorn on the December solstice. Now, the sun appears in the constellation Sagittarius during this time. The change is due to precession of the equinoxes.