The Milky Way core returns before dawn, March–April 2027, plus the Gamma Normids

Where the core is, month by month

The core of the Milky Way, around the galactic centre in Sagittarius, rises in the south-east. In late February it clears the horizon after midnight and is still fairly low when dawn begins. By mid-March it is well up in the last dark hours and reaches its highest point around dawn. In April it passes close to overhead before first light.

Rough times for when it is highest: about 5:45 am local standard time on 20 March, which is about 6:45 am on daylight-saving clocks and already in twilight, and about 3:45 am on 20 April, in full darkness. These come from simple geometry and shift with your longitude, so check your exact site in a planetarium app such as Stellarium.

The season runs on through winter, but these are the first months the core is properly placed. The morning zodiacal light, a faint cone of light rising from the eastern horizon, also shows before dawn from late February into early May, so finish your core frames before it brightens the eastern sky.

Daylight saving ends on 4 April

At 3 am on Sunday 4 April, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT go from AEDT to AEST, and South Australia from ACDT to ACST, putting clocks back an hour. Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia do not change. After the switch, the same pre-dawn sky and the dawn itself arrive an hour earlier by the clock, which makes April mornings a little easier.

Planning around the Moon

The best pre-dawn mornings run from a few days before new Moon to a few days after first quarter. Before new Moon only a thin crescent rises shortly before the Sun; after it, the waxing Moon sets in the evening or around midnight. Around full Moon and last quarter the Moon is up before dawn and washes out the core.

• March: new Moon on 8 March, first quarter on 16 March (east-coast date), full Moon on 22 March, last quarter on 30 March. Best mornings: roughly 5 to 19 March.
• April: new Moon on 7 April, first quarter on 14 April, full Moon on 21 April, last quarter on 29 April. Best mornings: roughly 4 to 17 April.
• The Gamma Normids fall inside the good March window.

Gamma Normids, mid-March

The Gamma Normids are a small shower with a radiant in Norma, in the southern Milky Way. From Australia it climbs high, to about 66° from Brisbane, 71° from Perth and 73° from Sydney, while from most of the northern hemisphere it never rises. This one is for southern observers.

A Dutch observing site lists the peak at about 06:00 on 14 March without naming a time zone, with activity for about three days either side, so treat the mornings of 13, 14 and 15 March as the window. The same site gives about 6 meteors an hour with the radiant overhead, and older figures put the ZHR (zenithal hourly rate, the theoretical count under a perfectly dark sky) at 6–8. A few an hour is a realistic hope. They are fast, about 56 km/s.

The Moon is waxing, about 27% lit on 13 March, 37% on the 14th and 48% on the 15th, and sets before midnight. The radiant is highest before dawn, so the pre-dawn hours are both dark and well placed, and a Milky Way sequence can catch any Normids in the same frames.

Where to go

For the core you want darkness to the south-east and overhead; for the Normids, a dark southern sky.

• Warrumbungle National Park, NSW: Australia’s first International Dark Sky Park, about 5.5 hours from Sydney via Coonabarabran. Camping needs a permit from the visitor centre (9 am to 4 pm), and generators are not allowed. Siding Spring Observatory is closed to the public at night.
• SA: the River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve, where Swan Reach Conservation Park is about 100 km from Adelaide, 4WD only, with no facilities. The Flinders Ranges, 5–6 hours north, are another option; watch for kangaroos between Hawker and Wilpena.
• Victoria: the Grampians, about three hours from Melbourne, or Lake Eildon and Wilsons Promontory, all on Parks Victoria’s stargazing list. The Astronomical Society of Victoria holds an occasional public Messier Star Party in March at its Leon Mow Dark Sky Site near Heathcote; check whether one is scheduled for 2027.
• Queensland: the Sunshine Coast hinterland International Dark Sky Reserve, or Lamington National Park, about 90 minutes from Brisbane to Binna Burra (no dark-sky designation).
• WA: Nambung National Park (the Pinnacles), two to two and a half hours from Perth, or Lake Ballard near Menzies, roughly 10 hours away. Night access rules for both were not confirmed when we wrote this, so check before you go.
• Tasmania: Bruny Island and the Hartz Mountains in the south.

Camera settings for the core

Start with a 14–24 mm lens at f/1.8–f/2.8, ISO 3200–6400 and an exposure set by the 500 rule: 500 divided by the full-frame focal length, so about 25 seconds at 20 mm, or about 17 seconds at 20 mm on a 1.5× crop sensor. The NPF rule in planning apps is stricter and suits high-resolution sensors. A white balance around 3800–4200 K keeps the sky close to neutral.

With the core near overhead in April, a vertical panorama of three or four frames captures it with the landscape below. Shoot the foreground separately in the blue hour, or with a longer exposure at lower ISO, and blend later. A star tracker lets you drop the ISO and expose for minutes.

On a phone, use a tripod and the longest night or astrophotography mode, and save RAW if your phone allows it.

Autumn mornings bring dew, especially inland. A lens heater strip or a hand warmer on the lens keeps frames clean.

Autumn conditions and what comes next

March and April are still inside the Bureau of Meteorology’s October-to-April peak period for severe thunderstorms and flooding, and the northern cyclone season runs to 30 April. Check fire danger ratings and total fire bans too. Kangaroos cross roads around dawn and dusk, exactly when you will be driving, so slow down.

Looking ahead, the Eta Aquariids start on 19 April and peak on 6–7 May near new Moon, with a radiant that climbs to about 57–64° from Australia.

Share your core panoramas, and any Normids you catch, in the Astro photography hobby on Garbamons.