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Sky guide, 33.9°S

The night sky over Sydney

What changes through the year in the sky above Sydney: how dark it gets, which constellations you can and cannot see, and what the eclipses and meteor showers of 2026 and 2027 look like from here.

Open the live sky for Sydney

Sunrise, sunset and darkness through 2026

Sydney is at 33.9°S. The table gives sunrise, sunset and day length on the 15th of each month in local time (Australia/Sydney), and the hours of full astronomical darkness, when the Sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon and the faintest stars and the Milky Way show. The longest dark nights are around June, with about 11 h 07 min of darkness.

Sun and darkness in Sydney, 15th of each month, 2026. Local time.
MonthSunriseSunsetDay lengthFull darkness
January05:5920:0814 h 10 min6 h 31 min
February06:2919:4713 h 18 min7 h 44 min
March06:5419:1312 h 20 min8 h 53 min
April06:1717:3211 h 15 min9 h 59 min
May06:3917:0210 h 23 min10 h 45 min
June06:5816:529 h 55 min11 h 07 min
July06:5817:0410 h 06 min10 h 58 min
August06:3417:2510 h 51 min10 h 20 min
September05:5517:4611 h 51 min9 h 21 min
October06:1419:0812 h 54 min8 h 11 min
November05:4319:3613 h 52 min6 h 55 min
December05:3820:0114 h 24 min6 h 09 min

Constellations and your latitude

How much of the sky you can see depends on latitude. From Sydney, in the southern hemisphere, 10 constellations never set: Apus, Chamaeleon, Hydrus, Mensa, Musca, Octans, Pavo, Triangulum Australe, Tucana and Volans. 1 never rise above the horizon: Ursa Minor. 9 more only partly clear it: Camelopardalis, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Cygnus, Draco, Lacerta, Lynx, Perseus and Ursa Major. These come from the IAU's constellation boundaries and are geometric, so they ignore haze, hills and buildings near the horizon.

Eclipses from Sydney, 2026 and 2027

Eclipses 2026 and 2027 and what Sydney sees
DateEclipseFrom Sydney
17 Feb 2026Annular solar eclipseNot visible from here
3 Mar 2026Total lunar eclipseTotality lasts about 59 minutes. From here the Moon is 35° up at the peak.
13 Aug 2026Total solar eclipseNot visible from here
28 Aug 2026Partial lunar eclipseNot visible from here
7 Feb 2027Annular solar eclipseNot visible from here
21 Feb 2027Penumbral lunar eclipseNot visible from here
19 Jul 2027Penumbral lunar eclipseA penumbral eclipse is a faint shading that is hard to see by eye. From here the Moon is 61° up at the peak.
2 Aug 2027Total solar eclipseNot visible from here
17 Aug 2027Penumbral lunar eclipseNot visible from here

Meteor showers: how high the radiant gets

The radiant is the point a meteor shower seems to stream from; the higher it climbs, the better the shower works. This is the highest each radiant gets from Sydney. See the meteor shower table for peak dates and the Moon.

Radiant altitude from Sydney
ShowerHighest radiantPeakZHR
Southern Delta Aquariids72°31 Jul25
Eta Aquariids57°6 May50
Southern Taurids41°6 Nov7
Orionids40°22 Oct20
Leonids34°18 Nov15
Geminids23°14 Dec150
Lyrids22°23 Apr18
Quadrantids7°4 Jan80
Draconidsnever rises9 Oct5
Perseidsnever rises13 Aug110

How this was worked out

Sun and darkness times come from the astronomy-engine library. The sunrise and sunset times on both 2026 solstices at this and five other places were compared with the US Naval Observatory's tables (20 times) and the largest difference was 30 seconds. The other mid-month figures use the same calculation but were not compared one by one. Constellation visibility comes from the IAU boundaries.

Sources

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