Qibla direction in Stockton

How to face the Qibla in Stockton

Stand where you will pray and find north first. Then turn towards north and move a further 20.0° towards east: the result is the bearing of 20.0°. A small error of a few degrees is forgiven by most scholars, but aiming simply at north would leave you about 20° off.

Facing the Qibla is a condition of the prayer. Whoever prays inside the Sacred Mosque faces the Kaaba itself; whoever is far away, as in Stockton, faces its direction and makes a sincere effort to be accurate. A nearby mosque is a handy reference, because its prayer rows were aligned when it was built. Once you know the direction at home, a discreet mark on the wall saves you from checking again.

Why a flat map shows a different direction

This is a place where maps mislead badly: a straight line on a flat map from Stockton to Mecca points to 96.8° (east), a full 76.8° away from the true Qibla of 20.0° (north). The map line keeps one compass heading and is 2,459 km longer than the great-circle route. Because the Earth is a sphere, the shortest way to Mecca from Stockton first heads north, and that is the direction to face.

How is the figure of 20.0° obtained? From the coordinates of Stockton (37.9577° N, 121.2908° W) and of the Kaaba (21.4225° N, 39.8262° E), spherical trigonometry gives the starting bearing of the great circle joining them. Mosque architects and astronomical Qibla tables rely on exactly the same calculation.

Distance from Stockton to Mecca and Medina

Mecca is 13,124 km from Stockton as the crow flies, and Medina, the city of the Prophet ﷺ, is 12,793 km away. A direct flight would take roughly 15 h 56 min, although most pilgrims from Stockton connect through Jeddah or Medina airport.

Clocks in Stockton run 11 hours behind Mecca in winter and 10 hours behind Mecca in summer, because of daylight saving time. Prayer times, however, depend on the sun at your own location, so always use the prayer times of Stockton rather than those of Mecca.

Finding the Qibla with the sun in Stockton

From Stockton the sun never rises high in the Qibla direction of 20.0°, so you cannot simply face the sun. The opposite method works instead, as the right-hand column of the table shows.

On 365 days the sun stands exactly opposite the Qibla: then the shadow of any vertical object, a pole, a door frame or a plumb line, points straight towards Mecca. This is most frequent in January (31 days), for instance on 1 January 2027 at 13:26.

Twice a year the sun passes directly over the Kaaba, on 28 May 2027 and 16 July 2027. Both happen at night in Stockton (02:18 and 02:27 local time), so they cannot be used here. Instead, on 13 January 2027 at 13:29 and 28 November 2027 at 13:09 the sun is over the point opposite the Kaaba, and every vertical shadow in Stockton points straight to Mecca.

Stockton compared with other cities

Compared with Washington D.C., 3,818 km away, the Qibla in Stockton is turned 36.6° further anticlockwise (20.0° against 56.6°), and Mecca is 2,490 km farther away. The nearest city with its own Qibla page, Modesto (44 km), prays towards 20.3°, a difference of 0.4°.

Across the 244 cities in the United States on this site, the Qibla ranges from 17.2° in Hillsboro to 350.9° in Anchorage, a spread of 333.7°. That is too large to use one national direction, so each city has its own bearing.

See all cities on the Qibla page for United States.

Qibla in cities near Stockton

• Modesto20.3° · 44 km
• Antioch19.4° · 45 km
• Elk Grove19.8° · 51 km
• Concord19.2° · 65 km
• Sacramento19.6° · 72 km
• Fairfield19.1° · 73 km