Tonight for 27.47°S, 153.03°E: moon phase, illumination and the twilight windows that decide when the sky is actually dark enough to observe. The moon figures are computed locally (exact), the twilight times come from the U.S. Naval Observatory’s public sunrise–sunset service.
Moon phase
🌘 Waning Crescent
Illumination
5%
Age of Moon
27.5 days
Next Full Moon
in 17 nights
Next New Moon
in 2 nights
Sun
↗ 18:52 UTC · ↘ 08:10 UTC
Twilight stage
Begins
Ends
Civil twilight
18:27 UTC
08:35 UTC
Nautical twilight
17:58 UTC
09:04 UTC
Astronomical twilight
17:27 UTC
09:35 UTC
Day length today: 13.3 h. Times are UTC; your browser clock may differ.
Astronomical darkness — the number that matters
Civil twilight ends when the Sun is 6° below the horizon (you can see Venus and Jupiter), nautical at 12° (the horizon and bright stars appear), and astronomical twilight at 18° — only after that does the sky reach true dark, letting faint galaxies, the zodiacal light and the Milky Way show themselves. Near the equator this happens fast (Malaysia gets about 90 minutes of full night all year round); at high latitudes summer can never reach it at all.
What to observe tonight
Under a Waning Crescent sky, try: the Moon’s terminator line (best crater detail), Jupiter and Saturn when above the horizon after midnight, and the Milky Way core season from southern latitudes. Check the space-weather page for aurora chances and the ISS page for pass timings.
The year’s fixed sky events
Hand-picked dates worth planning around — meteor-shower maxima and eclipses. Peak nights shift by roughly a day or two between years, and shower rates below are best-case figures under fully dark skies; moonlight and light pollution reduce what you actually see. Cross-check the Moon illumination card above before committing to a trip.
Event
Date
Countdown
Typical rate
☄️ Leonid meteors Famous for periodic storms of thousands per hour — the parent comet’s dense dust trails cross our orbit in a ~33-year rhythm.
17 Nov 2026
in 10 nights
~15/hr (storm potential)
🌠 Geminid meteors The richest shower of the year — slow, colourful meteors from the rocky asteroid Phaethon, good from early evening onward.
13 Dec 2026
in 36 nights
~120–150/hr
☄️ Ursid meteors The solstice shower — modest, but fireball-rich in odd years, radiating close to the faint pole star.
22 Dec 2026
in 45 nights
~10/hr
☄️ Quadrantid meteors The sharpest maximum of the year — a strong 24-hour spike radiating low near the old Quadrant constellation, best in the hours before dawn.
3 Jan 2027
in 57 nights
up to ~110/hr at peak
☄️ Lyrid meteors An ancient shower logged for 2,700 years; short bright trains near the star Vega, with occasional outbursts.
22 Apr 2027
in 166 nights
~15–20/hr
☄️ Eta Aquariid meteors Debris of Halley’s Comet’s outbound lap — fine, fast, often persistent-train meteors; best from the southern hemisphere before dawn.
5 May 2027
in 179 nights
~30–50/hr
☄️ Delta Aquariid meteors A steady, unhurried shower of greenish meteors spread over nearly three weeks — the reliable warm-season display.
30 Jul 2027
in 265 nights
~25/hr
🌑 Total solar eclipse The biggest eclipse event of the decade — totality sweeps southern Spain, North Africa, Egypt (Luxor sits on the centre line), Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. July 2028 repeats it for Australia and New Zealand.
2 Aug 2027
in 268 nights
totality up to 6m23s
Eclipse path and timings: NASA. Meteor shower parameters: International Meteor Organization summaries.
Tukuk-OS