South Node Sign Tracker

The South Node is the Moon’s descending node: the point where the Moon’s path crosses the ecliptic, the Sun’s path through the zodiac, going from north to south. The North Node, always opposite, is where it crosses from south to north. The Moon’s orbit is tilted about 5° to Earth’s, so it meets the ecliptic only at these two points. Twice a year, for about a month, the line between them faces the Sun, and a solar eclipse can only happen at a New Moon in one of these eclipse seasons. The nodes slowly turn westward, backward through the signs, all the way around in 18.6 years. From NASA’s Eclipses and the Moon’s Orbit and 2017 Eclipse and the Moon’s Orbit.