You can see the Milky Way across Australia in remote areas far from city lights, especially in designated Dark Sky Parks like Warrumbungle National Park (NSW), and iconic spots such as Uluru (NT), the Flinders Ranges (SA), and remote parts of Western Australia, with the best viewing generally from April to October on clear, moonless nights.
9 best places to see the Milky Way around Australia
If you love gazing into the night sky, spotting planets, shooting stars, and the Milky Way, then you must add Phillip Island to your stargazing list! Clear skies and uninterrupted views on Phillip Island allow for some of the best star-bright spots across Melbourne and Gippsland, Victoria.
The centre of our Milky Way galaxy is located in the southern constellation Sagittarius (The Archer) and is "only" 26,000 light-years away. On high-resolution images, it is possible to discern thousands of individual stars within the central, one light-year wide region.
The best time to view the milky way in the southern hemisphere is between February and October. Not only are the nights a little longer during this time but the galactic core of the Milky Way rises over the east just after sunset, allowing for some amazing shots.
Northern Hemisphere: Wait until “Milky Way season,” about April through October. Get away from light. Look south. Southern Hemisphere: Wait until “Milky Way season,” about September through March.
To photograph the Aurora Australis on an iPhone, use a tripod, enable Night Mode, set the exposure slider to 10-30 seconds, turn off the flash, lock focus, and keep the phone steady for the longest possible shutter speed to capture those faint, dancing lights.
Where can you see the Milky Way? 12 top locations
On a clear night, our galaxy—the Milky Way—can be seen by the naked eye, but because our eyes cannot distinguish the individual stars that make up the glowing band of light, it appears “milky.” Infrared telescopes, however, see with different “eyes,” capable of detecting various wavelengths (outside the visible range) ...
Leaving the galaxy far enough to photograph it is a whole different undertaking for a species that has not yet left the Solar System. "To get [images of the Milky Way] a spacecraft would have to travel either up or down from the disk of the Milky Way, and travel so incredibly far," Doten explains.
The best months for stargazing are typically autumn and winter (May to September in the Southern Hemisphere, October to March in the Northern Hemisphere), offering longer, darker, and clearer nights for viewing the Milky Way core, planets, and constellations, especially during new moon phases when moonlight interference is minimal. For the Southern Hemisphere (like Australia), June and July are peak Milky Way months, while in the North, winter provides crisp, dark skies.
Melbourne's best hidden gems blend secret laneway art, quirky boutiques, lush gardens, unique bars, and cultural pockets, including the artistic Nicholas Building, the quiet beauty of Alowyn Gardens in the Yarra Valley, historic spots like the RAAF Museum, vibrant markets like the Rose Street Artists' Market, serene parks like Birrarung Marr, and hidden bars such as Paris Cat Jazz Club, offering authentic local experiences beyond the typical tourist trail.
Located just 90 minutes north east of Adelaide in SA's Murraylands region, the River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve spans over 3,200sqkm, offering spectacular viewing of Southern Australia's night sky protected from light pollution.
The top 9 stargazing spots in Victoria
Common names
House river: The Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains of South Australia called the Milky Way wodliparri in the Kaurna language, meaning "house river".
Great Observatories, a semiformal grouping of four U.S. satellite observatories that had separate origins: the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Put your phone on the tripod, open the camera app, point it towards the most star-packed part of the sky, and hit the shutter button. "That's how good the tech is in these things — you set it up under a dark sky, hit the shutter, then wait," Shayne says.
Our results show that the Milky Way must be amongst the brightest, reddest star-forming spiral galaxies, with an overall color which is likely only slightly bluer than the bluest red sequence galaxies.
Surprisingly, normal matter turns out to be only a small fraction of what the Universe contains. 95% of the Universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy. These are words astronomers have come up with to give a name to the mysterious, invisible side of the Universe.
Australia's ultimate stargazing locations. Remote destinations and ink-black skies make Australia one of the best places in the world to gaze at a marvellously bright Milky Way.
"Milky Way season," when the galaxy's bright center becomes easier to see from Earth, is generally from March to September in the US. But just because we're well into September doesn't mean the Milky Way is no longer visible in the U.S. – just that it may be harder to spot.
The 400 rule is fairly simple; divide 400 by the true focal length of the lens and this will give you the maximum shutter speed before star trails will become noticeable. The TRUE focal length refers to the full frame equivalent of the lens (or 35mm SLR equivalent from the film days).
Use Night Mode: If your phone has a dedicated Night Mode (available on iPhone 11 and later, usually indicated by a moon symbol), use it. Night Mode automatically uses a longer exposure time to gather light.
If the aurora is barely there (ie invisible to the naked eye) you are likely to need to crank the ISO to 6400 or higher. Your exposure settings would be wide open aperture (ie f2. 8 or the lowest f-number your lens can achieve) along with a shutter speed which could be a full 30 seconds.