Southern Hemisphere night sky tonight

If you're based in the Southern Hemisphere and want to know what you can see in the night sky tonight, this page is for you.

Our monthly-updated night-sky guide will show you what you can see in the Southern Hemisphere over the coming weeks.

We'll include monthly highlights, stars, constellations, planets and deep-sky objects.

More guides

Southern Hemipshere stargazing
Best night-sky targets to see in Australia
Australian astrophotography

The Strawberry Moon captured by Taran Sohal over Byron Bay Lighthouse, New South Wales, Australia, 11 June 2025, 16:41 local time. Equipment: Sony A7 IV camera, Sony 200-600mm f/5.6 lens, Sirui tripod. Exposure: Single exposure at f/11, ISO 320, shutter 1/100. Processing: Adobe Photoshop 2025 — Credit: Taran Sohal

Mercury

Mercury spends most of its time immersed in the Sun’s glow, but April sees its best morning return for the year, sitting 10° above the eastern horizon at the start of dawn on 1 April, showing a phase like a three-day-old Moon.

As the month progresses, its sunlit portion grows, closing April shaped like a 10-day-old Moon.

Pre-dawn on 16 April, Mercury has an impressive naked-eye conjunction with Mars, Saturn and the thin crescent Moon, with all four fitting in a 7° circle.

Stars and constellations

The most southerly region of the Milky Way rides high in autumn, marked most famously by the Southern Cross (Crux).

Looming over it is the large constellation Centaurus, distinguished by the pointer stars Alpha (α) and Beta (β)Centauri, marking its two hooves.

When these constellations were created, Centaurus stood on the southern horizon for Mediterranean observers. Today, due to precession, the cross and its pointers no longer rise from these latitudes.

The planets

The early evening finds Venus low in the west, setting around the end of twilight.

Uranus passes it towards the end of April and is lost by month’s end. Jupiter still reigns the evening sky, transiting (due north) around sunset.

With its departure around 23:00 mid-month, the night is devoid of planets until a flurry of activity
in the predawn with the appearance of Mercury, then Mars, rising around the start of dawn.

Neptune and then Saturn join this morning gathering in mid-April.

Deep-sky objects

This month, we begin in the Sickle of the constellation Leo. Naked-eye (third-magnitude) Zeta (ζ) Leonis (RA 10h 16.7m, dec. +23° 25’) is the central star to an impressive binocular triple.

Flanking Zeta are two similar brightness (sixth-magnitude) yellow stars, 35 Leonis 0.1° to the northwest and 39 Leonis 0.3° to the southeast, the three forming a straight line.

Moving 10.5° west of Zeta, you’ll find the brilliant ninth-magnitude spiral galaxy NGC 2903 (RA 09h 32.1m, dec. +21° 30’).

Most striking is its bright, mottled oval core, extending 4 x 8 arcminutes, with a stellar nucleus. It’s surrounded by a halo that drops in brightness quickly on the shorter axis and extends much farther on the long axis, especially towards the northeast.

Southern Hemisphere Star Charts

Access this month's and all previous star charts for the Southern Hemisphere by clicking on the links below.

Best things to see in the Southern Hemisphere sky, April 2026