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Tropic of Capricorn Map

The southern twin of the Tropic of Cancer, crossing Australia, southern Africa and South America.

How to use it

  1. Check today's latitude in the facts and the December solstice it corresponds to.
  2. Follow the red line on the map; the shaded countries are the ones it crosses, and each white marker explains where.
  3. Type a place, or use your location, and press Find nearest point for the distance to the tropic.
  4. Read the table for the regions and roadside monuments along the line.

How it works

The tropic sits at the Earth's axial tilt, south of the Equator. The page computes today's mean obliquity as 23.439291 - 0.0130042 T degrees (T in Julian centuries since 2000), flips the sign, and draws the parallel there. The mean value leaves out nutation, a wobble of up to 9 arcseconds.

The December solstice instant uses the Meeus mean-season formula with its periodic terms, accurate to a few minutes. The country list was checked one by one; French Polynesia is listed as waters only because the line passes just south of Tubuai. Country outlines are Natural Earth data served from this site; place search and reverse lookups call OpenStreetMap services only after you act.

Questions

Which countries does the Tropic of Capricorn pass through?
Ten: Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. It also crosses the waters of French Polynesia just south of Tubuai. Most of its length is ocean.
Which cities are on the Tropic of Capricorn?
Rockhampton, Longreach and Emerald in Queensland sit on or within a few miles of it; Alice Springs is 20 miles (30 km) south. In Brazil the line runs through the northern districts of Sao Paulo and through Maringa. Antofagasta in Chile and Toliara in Madagascar lie just beyond it.
What happens on the Tropic of Capricorn at the December solstice?
The sun is directly overhead at local noon, the only day of the year that happens there. Everywhere south of the line the sun is never overhead; everywhere between the two tropics it is overhead twice a year.

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