Capricorn Trivia
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59 free Capricorn trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Capricorn trivia quiz covers the tenth sign of the zodiac from three sides. The astrology questions ask about the sea goat's dates, Saturn rulership, cardinal earth quality, negative polarity, opposite sign Cancer and the exaltation of Mars. The astronomy questions turn to the smallest zodiac constellation: Deneb Algedi the tail of the goat, the unrelated double Algedi, Dabih and Nashira, the globular cluster M30, the galaxy group HCG 87, and Neptune's discovery beside its brightest star. There is a section on the Tropic of Capricorn too: its latitude, its slow northward creep, and the four countries that lie entirely south of it. The mythology reaches back to the Babylonian goat-fish of the god Ea, then to Amalthea the goat who nursed Zeus and lost the horn that became the cornucopia, and to Pan diving into the Nile to escape Typhon, taking Syrinx's reeds and the word panic with him. Makar Sankranti, the crocodile Makara, the January garnet and a few unusual names from the Caucasus and Polynesia round it out. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question, so the quiz suits a Capricorn birthday, a pub round or an astronomy night. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Zodiac, Astrology and Planets quizzes next.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The constellation Capricornus is traditionally drawn as half goat and half what?
Fish
Fish. The Greeks inherited the hybrid from Babylonian sky lore, and only then told of a god who grew the tail while hiding in a river to explain it.
Q 02Capricorn is the zodiac's tenth sign; which sign is counted first?
Aries
Aries comes first because the zodiac is counted from the March equinox. Nine signs later, Capricorn begins exactly at the December solstice.
Q 03Which planet rules Capricorn?
Saturn
Saturn was the slowest planet the ancients could see, and people born under it were thought cold and gloomy, which is where the word 'saturnine' comes from.
Q 04Which sign follows Capricorn in the zodiac?
Aquarius
Aquarius starts around January 20. The real Sun runs about a month behind the signs, though, and only crosses into the stars of Aquarius in mid-February.
Q 05Capricorn opens a season at the December solstice; which astrological quality does that give it?
Cardinal
Cardinal: the four cardinal signs each begin at a solstice or an equinox, so astrologers cast them as the zodiac's starters and initiators.
Q 06Which sign sits opposite Capricorn on the zodiac wheel?
Cancer
Cancer: the Sun enters the two signs at opposite solstices, in June and December, which is how the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn got their names.
Q 07Which holiday is always celebrated while the Sun is in the sign of Capricorn?
New Year's Day
New Year's Day. Capricorn season starts at the December solstice, around December 22, so in the north it opens on the year's shortest day and every day after is longer.
Q 08In astrology, Capricorn belongs to which of the four elements?
Earth
Earth. The elements are dealt round the zodiac in a repeating order of fire, earth, air and water, so the tenth sign lands on earth, like Taurus and Virgo.
Q 09Which rock star shared Elvis Presley's January 8 birthday, making them both Capricorns?
David Bowie
David Bowie was born on January 8, 1947, twelve years to the day after Elvis. He released his last album, Blackstar, on his 69th birthday and died two days later.
Q 10On the medieval 'zodiac man' chart, Capricorn governs which part of the body?
The knees
The knees. Medieval doctors gave each sign a body part, running in order from head to feet, and avoided bleeding a part while the Moon was in its sign.
Q 11Among the twelve zodiac constellations, Capricornus holds what distinction?
It is the smallest
It is the smallest of the twelve, with under a third of Virgo's area, yet it ranks 40th in size among all 88 constellations, so more than half of them are smaller still.
Q 12Capricornus lies in a region of sky nicknamed the Sea; which of these constellations joins it there?
Pisces
Pisces shares the Sea with a whale, a dolphin, a river and a water carrier, though the sky's swan was left high and dry, far to the north.
Q 13Which Roman emperor made Capricorn his emblem and stamped it on his silver coins?
Augustus
Augustus. Suetonius tells how an astrologer read his birth chart and fell at his feet; the emperor then published his horoscope and put the sign on his coins.
Q 21Which planet did Johann Galle discover in 1846 near the edge of Capricornus?
Neptune
Neptune: Galle found it on his first night of searching, within a degree of where Urbain Le Verrier's sums said an unseen planet must be tugging on Uranus.
Q 22Which season begins in the Southern Hemisphere at the December solstice, when the Sun enters Capricorn?
Summer
Summer: the solstice that brings the north its shortest day brings the south its longest, so Capricorns in Sydney or Cape Town get midsummer birthdays.
Q 23The Tropic of Capricorn marks what?
The southernmost latitude where the Sun can be overhead
Q 14The star name Deneb Algedi, in Capricornus, comes from Arabic words meaning what?
The tail of the goat
The tail of the goat: 'deneb' is Arabic for tail, which is why the sky has several Denebs, among them the tail of Cygnus the swan and Denebola, the lion's tail in Leo.
Q 15What makes Deneb Algedi, a bright star in Capricornus, dim slightly about once a day?
A companion star eclipses it
A companion star eclipses it every 24.5 hours, because we happen to see the pair's tight orbit almost edge-on; each dip dims the star by about a fifth of a magnitude.
Q 16Alpha Capricorni is a double star; what is the least you need to see its two stars apart?
Just your eyes
Just your eyes: the pair is wide enough to split without help, yet the two only line up by chance, one about a hundred light-years away and the other more than six times farther.
Q 17What are the Alpha Capricornids?
A meteor shower
A meteor shower: it peaks around the end of July and rarely manages more than five meteors an hour, yet skywatchers prize it for its brilliant fireballs.
Q 18Which American author wrote Tropic of Capricorn, a novel banned in the United States for two decades?
Henry Miller
Henry Miller. The book came out in Paris in 1939 and stayed banned at home until the 1960s, so for years Americans read copies smuggled in from France.
Q 19Messier 30, which lies in Capricornus, is what kind of deep-sky object?
A globular cluster
A globular cluster: a ball of several hundred thousand stars about 13 billion years old, packed so tightly that some collide and shine again as young-looking 'blue stragglers'.
Q 20HCG 87 in Capricornus is a compact group of what?
Galaxies
Galaxies: its three members sit so close that their gravity is reshaping one another, while a small spiral that appears to sit among them is probably a far more distant bystander.
The southernmost latitude where the Sun can be overhead: it happens at noon on the December solstice, when an upright pole on the line casts no shadow at all.
Q 24What sets the latitude of the Tropic of Capricorn?
Earth's axial tilt
Earth's axial tilt: the planet leans about 23.4 degrees, and because that lean is slowly easing, the tropic is creeping north toward the equator.
Q 25Which scientist, born on Christmas Day in 1642, was a Capricorn?
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton has two birthdays: December 25 by the old calendar England still used, and January 4 by the modern one. Both fall in Capricorn.
Q 26Which of these countries lies entirely south of the Tropic of Capricorn?
Uruguay
Uruguay lies wholly south of the line. South Africa, despite its name, does not: the tropic clips its northern tip, and it crosses Argentina and Australia too.
Q 27Which island nation does the Tropic of Capricorn cross?
Madagascar
Madagascar: the line crosses the island's far south near the port of Toliara, which leaves nearly all of the country inside the tropics.
Q 28Which Babylonian water god had as his symbol the hybrid creature that became Capricorn?
Ea
Ea, the Sumerians' Enki, was humanity's ally among the gods: in the Babylonian flood story it is his secret warning that lets mankind survive the deluge the other gods send.
Q 29Which of these civil rights leaders was a Capricorn?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. The US holiday in his honour is the third Monday of January, so it only sometimes lands on his real birthday.
Q 30Which pagan midwinter festival is tied to the solstice that opens Capricorn season?
Yule
Yule: the Germanic midwinter feast was folded into Christmas as the north converted, which is why 'Yuletide' still means the Christmas season.