I don’t think I’d ever seen a truly dark sky until a trip to Exmouth this year. As I stared up into the deep, dark space above, I felt completely awestruck – not just by the blanket of stars, but at the reminder of how I’m just a mere speck in this wildly massive universe of ours.
Growing up in Sydney, it’s easy to forget just how magnificent our night sky really is. The glow of streetlights and skyscrapers drowns out the stars, blocking our ability to spot planets, galaxies and maybe even the odd spaceship. But after a recent trip to Exmouth, I’ll never look at the sky the same way. Stargazing there, under what might be the best night sky on the planet, made me feel like I was seeing the universe properly for the first time.
Tucked away on Western Australia’s North West Cape, Exmouth offers crystal-clear skies, minimal light pollution and breathtaking views of the Milky Way. Surrounded by the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National Park, the region is far from major cities or towns, meaning the skies are much darker and clearer. Add in a high number of cloudless nights, and it’s the ideal spot for stargazing year-round.
I was lucky enough to join Paul and Hannah Woods from Ningaloo Stars for a guided astronomy tour at the Milyering Discovery Centre – one of the darkest locations for stargazing on Earth.
Paul explains, “There’s a darkness scale called the Bortle Dark Sky Scale that ranges from one (the darkest possible) to nine (which is like being in the middle of a major city). Only a Bortle score of one or two classifies a location as a dark sky site. The Milyering Discovery Centre, where we run our tours from, has a Bortle score of two (almost a one).”
Throughout the night, we dissected the Milky Way in incredible detail, tracing its glowing dust lanes and uncovering a range of celestial phenomena. I was amazed to see Mars – currently the sole planet observable from Exmouth, along with Sirius (also known as the Dog Star) – the brightest star in our sky, and the eggs in the nest of the First Nations Peoples Emu constellation.
Using high-quality mobile telescopes, we also witnessed Herschel's Jewel Box – a dazzling open cluster of 100-odd multicoloured stars that are almost impossible to discern with the naked eye. But perhaps the coolest part of the night was spotting the Big Dipper in full – a prominent star pattern that should only be visible from the Northern Hemisphere.
I’ve been stargazing all across Australia, and after this experience, I'm convinced that Exmouth is the best place to truly see the night sky – not just in the country but in the world.