The short answer is: any time of the year, as long as it’s not cloudy! There is always something beautiful to see in the night sky, no matter the time of month or year.
The long answer is a bit more complicated and depends on other factors, both predictable (like the moon phases) and unpredictable (like the weather). Read on to find the best time of year to go stargazing for you!
We’ll cover the following topics in this post:
- Time of year
- Moon phase
- Planets
- Aurora
- Weather
TIME OF YEAR
Certain constellations and features of the night sky will be visible depending on the time of year. In this section, we will talk about the features of the night sky for each of the Southern Hemisphere seasons.
SUMMERTIME (NOV-FEB)
Summer nights are warmer, but the nights are shorter. It’s only at 10:45pm that the night sky is dark enough for stargazing, which is quite late for some!
Features of the summertime sky are:
- Orion
- Canis Major
- Taurus
- Matariki (Pleiades Star Cluster)
Summer skies tend to be darker. As we look toward the outskirts of our galaxy, the band of the Milky Way becomes less intense, and it gets easier to trace out famous constellations like Orion. For those interested in truly dark skies, summer nights are for you!
WINTERTIME (MAY-AUG)
Wintertime is one of our favourite times of year to stargaze. Tekapo gets very cold at night, but we forget the cold as we see the centre of our galaxy directly overhead, along with dark constellations like the Galactic Emu and the Galactic Kiwi. The sun sets early, so we have our earliest tours in winter. A 6:30pm tour means you can take advantage of an early night if you want to check out our local ski fields the following morning.
Features of the wintertime sky include:
- The core of the Milky Way
- Scorpius
- Sagittarius
- Galactic Emu
- Galactic Kiwi
The winter skies are brighter, with the core of the Milky Way casting faint shadows in dark places like our home, Lake Tekapo. For those who want to be awed by the Milky Way—and who don’t mind the cold—winter stargazing is for you!
SPRING (SEP-NOV) AND AUTUMN (MAR-MAY)
Spring and autumn have a little of everything. In spring, we see wintertime stars setting at the beginning of the night and summertime stars rising up later in the night, and vice versa in autumn. May and October are good months to get a little bit of everything in the course of a night.
Some features of the springtime sky include:
- Capricorn
- Aquarius
Some features of the autumn sky include:
- Corvus
- Virgo
- Rising core of the Milky Way
MOON PHASE
One of the most important things to look out for when planning a stargazing trip is the moon phase. When the moon is not visible in the night sky, thousands of stars are visible to the naked eye. With the full moon, that number drops to around five hundred stars.
If you love the moon, we find the best balance between moonlight and the amount of visible stars is during the quarter moon. The moon’s light is not so intense as to completely drown out the fainter features of the night sky, and through a telescope, sunrise or sunset on the moon’s surface shows many details of craters and mountains.
Check out our post about stargazing with the moon for more details.
PLANETS
The naked-eye planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Uranus and Neptune are visible only with the aid of a telescope.
Planets look like stars at first glance, but after careful observation, you may notice that the planets do not twinkle as much as stars do. Planets follow a predictable path through the Zodiac constellations, called the line of the ecliptic, but their exact location within these constellations will be different day-to-day and year-to-year. Some planets, like Venus and Mercury, change positions quickly, but other planets, like Jupiter and Saturn, move very slowly across the sky.
If you want to see Saturn’s rings through a telescope, see Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, or check out the phases of Venus, check before you travel if they will be visible at your location here.
AURORA
There is no specific time of year to see the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights; the strength of the aurora depends on the level of solar activity. We can never guarantee you will see the Southern Lights, but you can check out some tips on how to see the aurora in our blog post here.
WEATHER
Of course, you could plan the perfect stargazing trip, only to be foiled by a fully cloudy night. Check the weather before you head out! We recommend the site Windy, so you can compare different forecast models to get an idea of what the weather might do in your area.
Places like our home, Lake Tekapo, can be very unpredictable. The alpine environment combined with the unique microclimate of the Mackenzie Basin often mean clear skies, but clouds can happen regardless. There’s a reason why New Zealand is called Aotearoa (the Land of the Long White Cloud).
However, even on cloudy nights, sometimes the clouds break and give us a glimpse of the night sky through patches. Here in the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, the streetlights of Lake Tekapo are regulated and shielded, which permit us to see through certain types of thin clouds and gaps in thicker clouds allow stunning views of the night sky.
Check the following sites to get a better idea for the weather in Lake Tekapo!
We hope to see you soon under clear skies! Happy travels, and happy stargazing!
Comments are closed