Ever seen a moonbow? These are the ten most amazing things to see in the Australian night sky

Aurora 

Auroras are formed when the solar wind tangles with the Earth’s magnetic field, creating glorious night time colour shows in areas near the poles. They’re more common at solar “maximums” — which is why we’re seeing so many this year. They’re on the bucket list for most people so consider yourself lucky if you’ve seen one.

Comet

Comets grace our night skies as they pass Earth on their travels through the Solar System. Made up of rock, dust and ice they heat up, glow and melt as they get close to the Sun, creating a long tail behind them. Some of the more memorable ones have been Halley’s, McNaught’s, Shoemaker-Levy 9, 12P/Pons–Brooks.

Lunar eclipse

Watching a lunar eclipse is a leisurely event as the Earth’s shadow moves slowly across the full Moon, gradually reducing the visible area. The Moon turns a blood red during “totality” when the Earth’s shadow completely covers it. The next total lunar eclipse we will see in Australia is September 7, 2025.

Meteor or shooting star

Catching a glimpse of a meteor or shooting star is pretty exciting, as they’re generally quick and unexpected events. They occur when space rocks (known as meteoroids) enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burn up spectacularly before reaching the surface. This one was captured over Brisbane in 2024.

Meteor shower

Watching a meteor shower can be a spectacular and rewarding event with lots of shooting stars (meteors) over several hours. And as meteor showers are often predicted, it’s easy to plan to see them. They occur when Earth travels through streams of dust, grains and rock often left behind by passing comets.

The Milky Way

Many of us remember the first time we saw the awe-inspiring Milky Way. It’s best seen in remote or dark sky locations where it appears as a cloud sprawled across the starry sky. What we’re seeing is the galactic centre of the barred spiral Milky Way galaxy that we reside in, which contains maybe 100–400 billion stars.

The Moon

Watching the full moon rise is an amazing experience that repeats every month, but the Moon also looks beautiful as it waxes and wanes from full to crescent to new moon. As Earth’s only natural satellite, the Moon has enormous cultural and environmental importance. And it creates the tides.

Moonbow — wildcard entry!

A moonbow is an ethereal silvery rainbow that happens when moonlight is refracted through water droplets. They appear white to the human eye, but still contain all the colours of the rainbow. The moonbow is a wildcard entry after many people suggested it during the first round of voting. 

Saturn’s rings

Saturn appears as a bright ‘star’ in the sky, but when you look through a telescope it’s incredibly exciting to see the planet’s beautiful rings come into view. And while these rings are enormous, they’re shockingly thin, with a depth of 10 metres or less in many places. They’re made up of small chunks of ice, rock and dust.

Stargazing in a dark sky location

With zero light pollution, stargazing in a dark sky location gives the most overwhelming view of the night sky: thick with stars and the best possible view of the Milky Way, planets and distant galaxies. There are many dark sky locations in Australia, generally inland and in remote areas. 

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Emu in the Sky

Dark areas in the Milky Way create the Emu in the Sky, seen here with it’s head at the top right (a dark cloud) and it’s long neck, body and long legs (formed from dust lanes across the Milky Way) trailing to the bottom left. Many Aboriginal communities tell the story of the Emu in the Sky.

International Space Station

Appearing like a rapidly moving extra-bright dot in the sky, the International Space Station zips along steadily without changing direction. It’s in low-Earth orbit, which means it’s a little over 400 kilometres above us. It takes just 92.9 minutes to orbit Earth, so there are regular opportunities to spot it.

Jupiter’s moons

Spotting Jupiter’s four Galilean moons requires a set of binoculars or telescope, but the gas giant’s satellites are so large they can even be seen in light-polluted skies. Seeing them this way is like walking in the steps of Galileo Galilei who first observed the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto in 1610. 

Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

These “clouds” look like two smudges of fuzzy light in a dark star-lit sky and are some of the most distant objects we can observe with the naked eye. They’re also two of the closest galaxies to us, with the Large Magellanic Cloud just a teeny 160,000 light years away and the Small Magellanic Cloud around 200,000.

Lightning sprites

Lightning sprites often appear as clusters of red-orange flashes in the night sky. Although they can be triggered by lightning in thunderstorms, they’re actually at least 50 km above the level of clouds, in the mesosphere. These fleeting electrical discharges may appear small but can be about 50 km wide.

Mars

Mars appears as a bright red point of light in the night sky making it one of the easiest planets to spot (as well as one of the easiest to explore!). As a planet orbiting around the Sun, Mars changes its position in the night sky relatively quickly, compared to the backdrop of stars. 

Moon halo

Appearing as an ethereal ring surrounding the Moon, a lunar halo (or moonbow, storm ring) forms when tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere refract the moonlight, creating a circle. Moon halos were used in traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture as weather predictors.

Orion Nebula

This beautiful nebula can be seen in the constellation Orion, which is often called “The Saucepan” in Australia. The Orion Nebula appears as a fuzzy star in the handle of the saucepan (or Orion’s sword). With binoculars you can see a lot more detail, although you’ll need a telescope to get this view. 

Planetary conjunction

These occur when planets appear close to each other in the sky, when observed from Earth. In reality, these planets are still very far away from each other. Only two planets are required for an alignment, but in June this year there was a rare alignment of Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn. 

Pleiades

Also known as the Seven Sisters in Aboriginal (and other) cultures, the Pleiades appear as a bright misty cluster of stars. It’s generally possible to spot at least six of the sisters (stars) with the naked eye. The stars in the Pleiades are actually sisters, having been born from the same cloud of gas and dust.

Starlink train

Spotting a megaconstellation of satellites — a Starlink train — can be deeply shocking as they look somewhat unnatural or alien in the night sky. If you haven’t yet seen one, your chances are ever-increasing as more and more satellites are being launched, with numbers set to climb dramatically in the near future.

Supernova 1987a

You’d be extremely lucky to have seen this one in real life, but for those who did, it was a memorable event. Visible only in the southern hemisphere, a bright supernova explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud was noticed in February 1987. For a short time it could be seen with the naked eye.

Venus

Venus is the brightest object in our night sky, apart from the Moon, and it’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than any other planet. Its bright appearance in the morning and evening skies is why it’s called both the Morning Star and Evening Star in many cultures. It’s similar in size to Earth, but spins in the opposite direction.