Southern sky calendar: October 2026 to April 2027

Clocks, time zones and meteor rates

Australia runs on five clocks this season, so every time below names its zone. Until daylight saving ends, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT use AEDT (UTC+11) and South Australia uses ACDT (UTC+10:30). Queensland stays on AEST (UTC+10), the Northern Territory on ACST (UTC+9:30) and Western Australia on AWST (UTC+8) all year.

Daylight saving ends at 3 am on Sunday 4 April 2027, when clocks go back to 2 am. From then the south-east is on AEST and South Australia on ACST, so pre-dawn targets come an hour earlier by the clock.

Meteor showers are rated by ZHR (zenithal hourly rate): what one observer would count in an hour under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant, the point the meteors seem to come from, straight overhead. Several big showers radiate from the northern sky, which stays low from Australia, so real counts here are often a small fraction of that figure.

October and November 2026

• Orionids, morning of Thursday 22 October. Peak at 5:28 am AEDT (4:58 am ACDT, 4:28 am AEST, 3:58 am ACST, 2:28 am AWST), ZHR about 20. The 79% Moon sets at about 3:38 am in Sydney, 2:24 am in Brisbane and 3:00 am in Perth, so shoot from about 3:30 am until dawn.
• Zodiacal light: a faint cone rising from the western horizon after dusk, in season until early November. Try the first moonless evenings after the full Moon of 26 October.
• Milky Way core: low in the west after dark and setting earlier each week. The evenings around the new Moon of 9 November are the last good chance this year.
• Southern Taurids, night of 5–6 November; Northern Taurids, night of 12–13 November. About 5 slow, sometimes bright meteors an hour from each stream at best, with no fireball swarm predicted this year (the next is expected in 2032). The thin Moon is out of the way for most of both nights.
• Mars passes 1.2° from Jupiter in the morning sky on 16 November, and 1.7° from the star Regulus on 26 November.
• Leonids, morning of Wednesday 18 November. The peak falls in daylight (10:50 am AEDT), so use the hours before dawn. The radiant rises between about 1 am (Brisbane) and 2:40 am (Adelaide) local time and stays low; expect a few meteors an hour.
• Venus is the morning star from early November and is at its brightest on 29 November. Uranus reaches opposition on 26 November; at magnitude 5.6 it needs binoculars.

December 2026 and January 2027

• Puppid-Velids, 1–15 December, listed peak around 6 December. The radiant climbs above 70° from southern Australia and the Moon is only 6% lit, but the ZHR is just 5 to 10.
• Geminids, night of 14–15 December: the best shower of the season. Peak at 12:45 am AEDT and 12:15 am ACDT on the 15th, and at 11:45 pm AEST, 11:15 pm ACST and 9:45 pm AWST on the 14th. ZHR 150, but the radiant reaches only about 23–30° above the horizon from Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, and less further south. The 25% Moon sets before the peak on the east coast and in Adelaide.
• Ursids, 22 December: the radiant never rises from Australia.
• Venus reaches greatest elongation in the morning sky on 4 January, about 47° from the Sun.
• Quadrantids, 4 January: not practical from Australia. From Brisbane southwards the radiant climbs no higher than about 14°, and the peak falls in daylight.
• The Magellanic Clouds ride high in the south on summer evenings; from 30–35°S they never set.
• Saturn stays in the evening sky until early March.
• Comet 2P/Encke may brighten in late January but stays within about 10° of the Sun, and brightness forecasts disagree. Treat it as a maybe.

February 2027

• The annular solar eclipse of 6 February is not visible from Australia.
• New Moon on 7 February (6 February in WA). The first half of the month is the darkest time for the southern Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds and the Carina Nebula (best from February to July).
• Alpha Centaurids, listed peak 8 February, no reliable time. ZHR about 6, from a radiant near the pointers, Alpha and Beta Centauri, that is high after midnight: a bonus for Milky Way shooters, not a night out on its own.
• Jupiter at opposition on 11 February: magnitude −2.5, in Leo, up all night.
• Mars at opposition on 19 February (UTC), the night of 19–20 February here: magnitude −1.2, also in Leo.
• Full Moon on 21 February brings a penumbral lunar eclipse. Only Western Australia sees the start: the Moon enters the faint outer shadow at 5:12 am AWST, shortly before it sets at dawn. Elsewhere it begins in daylight or after moonset.
• Morning zodiacal light returns from late February, rising from the eastern horizon before dawn.
• By late February the Milky Way core rises after midnight, still low in the south-east at dawn.

March and April 2027

• New Moon on 8 March. The core is now well placed before dawn and highest around first light by mid-March.
• Gamma Normids, around 14 March. A small southern shower, about 6 an hour at best, from a radiant that climbs to 66–73° from Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. The waxing Moon, about 37% lit on the 14th, sets before midnight.
• New Moon on 7 April, after daylight saving has ended: the best pre-dawn window of the season, with the core close to overhead before first light.
• Lyrids, 23 April: the peak falls in daylight two days after full Moon, and the radiant climbs no higher than 22–28°. Not worth planning around.
• The Eta Aquariids begin on 19 April; their peak on 6–7 May, near new Moon, is just outside this calendar and well placed for Australia.

Moon phases at a glance

East-coast dates. In Western Australia the full Moon of 25 November falls on 24 November, and the new Moon of 7 February on 6 February.

• New Moon: 9 November, 9 December, 8 January, 7 February, 8 March, 7 April.
• Full Moon: 26 October, 25 November, 24 December, 22 January, 21 February, 22 March, 21 April.

Where to go

• Warrumbungle National Park, NSW: Australia’s first International Dark Sky Park, near Coonabarabran (about 5.5 hours from Sydney). Camping needs a permit. Siding Spring Observatory nearby is closed to the public at night; Beyond the Sky Stargazing runs night tours.
• River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve, SA: its core, Swan Reach Conservation Park, is about 100 km from Adelaide, 4WD only, with no facilities.
• Sunshine Coast hinterland, Queensland: the state’s first International Dark Sky Reserve, declared in 2026 and covering more than 870 km².
• Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles), NT: an International Dark Sky Sanctuary since August 2026, about 100 km south of Tennant Creek. Check access, permits and wet-season roads before you go.
• Also good: the Grampians (about three hours from Melbourne), the Blue Mountains (about 100 km west of Sydney), the Flinders Ranges, Nambung National Park (about two hours from Perth), and southern Tasmania, including Bruny Island and the Hartz Mountains.

Season safety

The Bureau of Meteorology names October to April as the peak period for heatwaves, bushfires, severe thunderstorms, flooding and tropical cyclones (the northern cyclone season runs from 1 November to 30 April). Check the forecast, fire danger rating and total fire bans before any trip; in NSW a ban means no open fires and no wood, charcoal or heat-bead barbecues outdoors.

Wombats, emus and kangaroos are active at night, so drive slowly around dusk and dawn. In remote parks, tell someone your plan, carry water and food, and expect patchy mobile coverage.

Aurora australis cannot be forecast months ahead, and most Australian sightings come between May and August and around the September equinox. Sign up for the Bureau’s space weather alerts and treat any display as a bonus.

When you photograph any of these, share your best frames in the Astro photography hobby on Garbamons.