Summer stargazing in Broken Hill brings a changing cast of celestial characters to the evening sky. From November to January, look for Orion the Hunter, Taurus the Bull and the Seven Sisters, along with the distant Andromeda Galaxy, the Geminid meteor shower and satellites moving among the stars.
At Outback Astronomy, dark skies and wide horizons give us room to follow these objects as they rise and move across the sky. Here are ten things to look for over the coming months, whether you’re joining us for a sky show or getting to know the night sky yourself.
You don’t need to arrive knowing the constellations. Give your eyes 10 minutes away from bright lights and let the view develop. Find a few bright landmarks, then build connections between them. Earth’s rotation carries the stars westward through the night; our yearly journey around the Sun changes which stars greet us after sunset. Watch from early evening. See summer’s constellations appear progressively earlier as the weeks pass.
On November evenings, the Milky Way’s hazy band lies low around much of the horizon, leaving a broad window overhead through which we look away from our Galaxy’s crowded, flattish plane. The stars haven’t disappeared. We are looking in a different direction through our galactic home. As we tell our guests, imagine the galaxy is shaped like a flat dinner plate. During November in our early evening sky shows, think of the view as if looking above the dinner plate, towards the stars above the galactic plane. It’s an awesome sight – a star-studded observation of the inky black canvas of deep space!
As the night advances, and summer progresses, another stretch of the Milky Way climbs in the east. This is its subtler summer face, rich in stars and clusters, rather than the brilliant central bulge familiar during winter. This is when the Milky Way (or the flat dinner plate) begins to tilt upwards in the east. This is a stunning and magnificent revelation for stargazers who have not been familiar with the apparent “flipping” of the Milky Way band – the sinking of the band in the west during October/early November and the rising of the band in the east during December and January. The majestic view changes due to our orbit of the Sun…just magnificent viewing.
Seeing Andromeda Galaxy from Australia calls for a clear northern horizon – and November offers an opportunity, as does December and much of January (but conditions like dust and haze can create trouble if you leave your viewing too late in summer). From Broken Hill Andromeda Galaxy never climbs high, making a clear horizon particularly valuable. To the naked eye and also through binoculars, it appears as a delicate cigar-shaped smudge, rather than the colourful spiral of photographs that sophisticated professional observatories, or the team operating the Hubble Space Telescope, tend to publish. Yet that faint glow has travelled roughly 2.5 million years to reach your eyes. Looking at it is an encounter with another galaxy, and another age. Look here to see a different view of Andromeda Galaxy from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope.
Ask the team at Outback Astronomy to show you how to star-hop using famous constellations nearby to find Andromeda super quickly.
The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, sparkle in Taurus like a handful of jewels. How many can you separate with your eyes? In our dark sky using just naked eyes, if your eyes are still young and sharp, you will see many more than seven. These are physically related stars, born from the same stellar nursery, roughly 445 light years away. Their delicate appearance makes them a favourite introduction to the rewards of a dark sky. Provided you have access to a good northern horizon at your home, you can always find this sparkling array of stars – the Outback Astronomy team can also help you to find them with easy star-hopping techniques, using nearby bright stars visible even under city lights.
Look for orange Aldebaran and the V-shaped Hyades marking the bull’s face, with long horns reaching outward. Here is a useful astronomical twist – the star Aldebaran appears among the Hyades but is actually a foreground star, closer to us than the beautiful background star cluster. Constellations, like Taurus, are actually unique areas of the celestial sphere above us. Ancient stargazers imagined various objects, making “pictures” drawn from joining stars into shapes from our Earthly viewpoint. Star patterns ignore distances and brightness – its all about imagining the picture. When we show you Taurus the bull under our dark conditions with no Moon or just a thin crescent if it is nearby, you can understand how ancient stargazers were thinking. The view of the bull is clear and the story-telling aspects come to life.
Three neatly aligned stars announce Orion’s Belt. Together with the nearby sword stars, they form the familiar Saucepan. Within that sword is the Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery where new suns are forming. This is possibly one of the most famous naked eye and binocular objects during summer in the southern hemisphere. Then just wait until you see this amazing object through our smart telescope, projected onto the large flat screen, outdoors, in real time.
We also zero in of the key bright stars and compare them, the cool, reddish Betelgeuse with the hot, blue-white Rigel. Their colours reveal different surface temperatures and different stages in their life-cycles. Betelgeuse is a swollen red supergiant approaching the end of its life, destined eventually to explode as a supernova – although nobody can give us a reliable date for when this will occur. This is an excellent star to consider the potential scenario – “what if it has already blown up, or what if it were to blow up tonight?” We can walk you through the possibilities … it’s a fascinating range of thoughts.
Follow Orion’s Belt towards Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, in Canis Major, the Great Dog. Nearby Mirzam is traditionally “the announcer”, heralding Sirius’s rising. We can show you how to find it and await the rising of the majestic, dazzling alpha star in Canis Major, Sirius.
Farther south shines Canopus, the second-brightest night-time star, belonging to Carina. Compare these two beacons – Sirius is a relatively close neighbour, while Canopus shines across a much greater distance. Apparent brightness tells only part of a star’s story.
The big and little dogs along with Orion, provide another great star hop if you’re trying to learn about stars.
Castor and Pollux mark the twins of Gemini, becoming easier evening targets as summer advances. December also brings the Geminid meteor shower, when Earth encounters debris associated with asteroid 3200 Phaethon. But be warned… you will need to be prepared to do an all-nighter as the best viewing of the meteor shower is always after midnight. You can watch the northern sky during the first few weeks of December to look for “shooting stars” but the maximum number of meteors is about mid-month. For 2026, optimum meteor activity will be during the nights, after midnight, from 12-13-14-15 December.
There is a waxing crescent Moon about then but it leaves favourable darkness later in the night. Meteors can appear across the sky. Settle back and give them time, without expecting the headline hourly rates sometimes quoted for ideal conditions. From our experience in our Broken Hill stargazing site, we’d expect to see meteors any time after sunset and throughout most of the night, from early December for the next two weeks, provided conditions are clear and dark.
November’s broad horizons also make satellite watching rewarding. A steady point gliding between stars is likely to be sunlight reflected from an orbiting spacecraft. Some fade abruptly as they enter Earth’s shadow.
SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) and Eutelsat’s OneWeb are building broadband networks above us. Starlink is by far the largest operator in the space above us. The visibility of satellites varies. A moving light needs to be checked against published data on reputable websites before it can be named with confidence. The viewing hours immediately after sunset and before dawn provide the right combination of darkness below and sunlight overhead to capture a glimpse of these spacecrafts. These networks connect remote places while also giving astronomers new challenges in protecting the sky.
By January, the scene gathers earlier in the evening. Orion the Hunter perhaps in pursuit of Taurus, with Canis Major and Canis Minor accompanying him across the sky. Greek storytelling also links Orion with the Pleiades, through his pursuit of the sisters. These traditions overlap rather than forming one fixed tale – but together they turn scattered stars into an enormous celestial theatre.
Various Australian aboriginal stories also link some of the stars of Orion with a man or spirit who also pursues the young girls in the Pleiades star cluster.
At Outback Astronomy, we help you find the characters and the science behind them. Bring your curiosity, let your eyes settle into the darkness, and discover how much of the universe a city sky has been keeping from you.
Make room for a summer evening under Broken Hill’s stars. Explore the sky shows and book with Outback Astronomy.
Image credit – Outback Astronomy. The view to the north-east that develops from November onwards into summer.
Explore our upcoming night sky sessions and reserve your spot beneath the big Broken Hill skies.
A hunter, a galaxy and a sky full of surprises Summer stargazing in Broken Hill brings a changing cast of celestial characters to the evening sky. From November to January, look for Orion the Hunter,
Weather forecasting is not always simple in inland Australia. This short article explains why Outback Astronomy watches the bigger weather picture and recommends Phil Duncan’s WeatherWatchTV for plain-language climate and weather updates.
Since the NSW Land and Environment Court appeal, Outback Astronomy has begun consultation under the new Court-approved conditions and is now independently monitoring sky brightness at Receiver R2.
PLUS Ticket Inclusions
– Seating – reclined chair
– Sleeping Bag (in cooler months)
– Loan of an audio unit
– Optics suitable for the event*
– Side table
– Food and beverage service
Extras at Time of Booking
– Ear phones (or bring your own)
– Hot chocolate
– Options for other food, drinks
* Varies according to conditions.
** Only used in reclined chairs.
Standard Ticket Inclusions
– Seating
– Loan of an audio unit
– Optics suitable for the event*
Extras at Time of Booking
– Ear phones (or bring your own)
– Hot chocolate
– Reclined chair
– Reclined chair, sleeping bag**
– Options for other food, drinks
* Varies according to conditions.
** Only used in reclined chairs.
We use an audio system in most of our sky shows.
You should remember to bring your 3.5mm round plug/jack earphones – or you can purchase some when making an online booking if they are required for your event.
The following earphone connectors are not suitable – flat-style Apple Lightning, USB, Bluetooth or WiFi.
