Night sky tonight in Melbourne
The night of Sunday 18 October to Monday 19 October 2026
At a glance
Sunset 19:37, properly dark from 20:40, getting light from 05:29, sunrise 06:32 (local time).
The Moon is 49 per cent lit and waxing, setting at 02:38. It is in the zodiac sign of Capricorn.
The planets
- Jupiter: visible from 05:00 to 05:20, highest at 05:20 in the northeast, 15° up, near Regulus. Magnitude −1.8.
- Saturn: visible from 20:40 to 05:10, highest at 00:10 in the north, 51° up. Magnitude 0.4.
- Mars: visible from 04:30 to 05:20, highest at 05:20 in the northeast, 18° up. Magnitude 1.0.
Not visible: Mercury, Venus (too close to the Sun or not up in the dark).
ISS and space stations
- ISS: Tuesday 20 October, 21:53 to 21:54, from the south to the south, up to 15°
Visible passes this night and the next two: the station lit by the Sun, the sky dark. It glides across the sky as a bright steady point, without blinking.
High in the sky at 10 pm
This week in the sky
- Comet 161P/Hartley-IRAS at its brightest: About magnitude 9.7: at the limit of binoculars, better in a telescope
- Orionids: peak: Up to 20 meteors an hour under an ideally dark sky. The Moon is 78 per cent lit then and drowns the fainter ones.