Equinoxes and Solstices 2027: Exact Dates and Times, Plus Perihelion and Aphelion

By Web Asset House Studio · October 29, 2026

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How we wrote this: Dates and times come from the U.S. Naval Observatory's (USNO) Earth's Seasons data service and its sunrise and sunset service for New York City (40.71°N, 74.01°W), checked October 29, 2026; explanations come from USNO's "The Seasons and the Earth's Orbit" and "Length of Day and Night at the Equinoxes" pages (linked below). Eastern times account for daylight saving time.

USNO says the equinoxes mark the beginning of spring and fall, and the solstices the beginning of summer and winter, named, by convention, for the Northern Hemisphere's seasons. Here's the 2027 calendar.

The 2027 dates

Two dates shift depending on where you are. Perihelion falls on January 2 in U.S. time zones but January 3 in UT. The December solstice is the evening of December 21 in Eastern time but December 22 in UT, and in Europe, where it's already the early hours of the 22nd.

Day length in New York City

From USNO's sunrise and sunset times (local time):

The longest day of 2027 has nearly six hours more daylight than the shortest.

Why "equal night" isn't quite equal

If "equinox" means equal night, why does New York get about 12 hours 8 minutes of daylight on the equinox? USNO explains:

• On the equinox, the center of the Sun's disk crosses the equator and is above the horizon for 12 hours everywhere.
• But sunrise is defined as the moment the Sun's leading edge appears, and sunset as the moment its trailing edge disappears, so the edges add time at both ends.
• Atmospheric refraction makes the Sun look higher than it is, adding several more minutes at each end.

The result, per USNO: on the equinox the day is about 7 minutes longer than the night up to about 25° latitude, rising to 10 minutes or more at 50°. At 40° north (New York's latitude), the days of truly equal day and night come around March 17 and September 26.

What causes the seasons (and what doesn't)

USNO's explainer: the seasons come from the 23.4° tilt of Earth's axis. The axis stays nearly fixed in space as Earth orbits, so for part of the year the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun (summer) and six months later away from it (winter). The solstices are when the axis is most tilted toward or away from the Sun.

Distance isn't the cause. Earth's orbit is nearly circular; USNO says the distance to the Sun at perihelion is only about 3% less than at aphelion. That's why Earth is closest to the Sun in early January, during Northern Hemisphere winter. USNO adds that perihelion falling about two weeks after the December solstice is a coincidence of our era: the date of perihelion slowly drifts later, by about one day every 58 years.

Related dates

• Clocks change on March 14 and November 7, 2027; see daylight saving time.
• The 2026 winter solstice and the shortest days: winter solstice 2026
• Two solar eclipses in 2027: February 6 (annular) and August 2 (total)
• Moon dates: full moons 2026 to 2027

Sources

• U.S. Naval Observatory: Earth's Seasons, Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion
• U.S. Naval Observatory: The Seasons and the Earth's Orbit
• U.S. Naval Observatory: Length of Day and Night at the Equinoxes
• U.S. Naval Observatory: Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day