Tonight's sky in Australia
Pick your city to see tonight's sky over Australia: when the Sun sets, when the Moon rises and sets, how much of it is lit and which way round it looks from here, and which planets you can find with your eyes an hour after sunset, with the direction to face.
Sydney tonight (2026-10-21)
| Sunset | about 7:15 pm AEDT |
|---|---|
| Moonrise | about 2:13 pm AEDT |
| Moonset | about 3:37 am AEDT tomorrow |
| Moon | Waxing Gibbous, 73% lit |
From Sydney the lit side is on the left: the Southern Hemisphere sees the Moon the other way up from northern photos.
Planets an hour after sunset (about 8:15 pm AEDT)
- Saturn: about 30° up, in the north-east
How to use it
- Choose the capital city nearest you. The times are that city's local time, with its zone (AEST, AEDT, ACST, ACDT or AWST).
- Go outside about an hour after the sunset time shown, when the sky is dark enough for planets.
- Face the direction listed for each planet and look about as high as the angle given: 10° is roughly a fist held at arm's length above the horizon.
How it is worked out
Positions come from the same astronomical ephemeris as the rest of this site. For each planet the page takes its place along the ecliptic an hour after sunset and works out how high it stands above your horizon and in which direction.
A planet counts as visible when it is more than 10° up and more than 15° from the Sun, so it is out of the twilight glare. Mercury and Venus are often too close to the Sun; that is why they come and go.
Moonrise and moonset are found by stepping through the night ten minutes at a time and noting when the Moon's centre crosses the horizon. The page leaves out each planet's small distance above or below the ecliptic, so heights are good to a few degrees and times to a few minutes, which is why it says "about".
A worked example: in Sydney on 19 October 2026 the Sun set at about 7:13 pm AEDT. An hour later Saturn stood about 28° up in the north-east, two weeks after its opposition on 4 October, while Mercury sat too low in the western twilight to count. The Moon, at first quarter and 54% lit, had risen just after midday and set at about 2:39 am. Seen from Sydney its lit half was on the left.
Questions
Why does the Moon look upside down from Australia?
You are looking at it from the other side of the Earth's equator, so the face that northern photos show the right way up appears turned over. A waxing crescent is lit on its left here and on its right in Europe and North America.
Why is a planet I saw last month missing?
Planets move along the sky through the year. When one gets within about 15° of the Sun it sets with the Sun or rises in daylight, and the page leaves it out until it moves clear.
Is this an astrology reading?
No. This page is astronomy: where things are in your sky tonight. What a planet's position means in astrology is in the transits and horoscopes pages.
My town is not listed. Which city should I pick?
The nearest capital. Rise and set times change by a minute or two for every hundred kilometres east or west, so a nearby capital is close enough to plan an evening.
Moon phases for the next 30 days · Moon calendar · What the planets mean right now