Best things to see in the Southern Hemisphere sky this month

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.

For more advice, read our guides to Southern Hemipshere stargazing and the best night-sky targets to see in Australia.

Highlights

See all five naked-eye planets in the evening sky this month – let the Moon be your guide.

In late twilight, low in the west, Mercury is 2° from the thin crescent Moon on the 3rd.

Two days later, spectacular Venus is 5° from the Moon.

As twilight closes on 11th, Saturn and the Moon are together due north.

Look north at midnight on 17th to find the full Moon close to Jupiter.

Finally, at midnight on 20th, Mars and a near third-quarter Moon have just risen in the northeast.

Stars and constellations

The Circlet asterism (bottom right) makes up one of the two fish in Pisces. Credit: John Sanford, David Parker / Science Photo Library.

Several lesser-known asterisms and constellations take centre stage, many with a water theme.

Being mostly composed of fourth-magnitude stars, they can be surprisingly easy to find.

Look north to find the Circlet of Pisces (the western fish), followed by another circle to the east, the head of Cetus the Whale.

High above Pisces’ circlet is the fish-shaped Piscis Austrinus (southern fish), with Fomalhaut forming its mouth.

Next door (west) is the smiley-shaped Capricornus the Sea Goat.

The Planets

Jupiter by Tom Bishton, Brisbane, Australia. Equipment: Celestron CPC 800 SCT, Skyris 618C CCD.

November sees a brief evening return by Mercury, remaining low in the western twilight and lost in the Sun’s glare by month’s end, to return to dawn skies in late December.

The early evening sees Venus ruling the western sky, with Saturn and Neptune having already transited in the northwest

Jupiter arrives around 21:00, presenting excellent opportunities to observe this gas giant high in the northern morning sky.

As Mars rises around midnight, its best views will be before dawn.

Saturn by Tom Bishton, Brisbane, Australia. Equipment: Celestron CPC GPS 800 telecsope, Celestron Neximage 5, 2x barlow lens

Deep-sky

The Small Magellanic Cloud appears as a 4° fuzzy blob high in the southern evening sky at this time of year. Binoculars display some tantalisingly scattered bright knots.

The brightest example is located near the northern edge of the cloud: NGC 346 (RA 00h 59.1m, dec. –72° 11’).

This is the most active star-forming region in the SMC, like the Tarantula is to the Large Magellanic Cloud. Telescopes show NGC 346 as a compact open star cluster, embedded in an oval-shaped nebula, roughly 5 arcminutes across.

Also, in the same (wide) field of view, lies the open cluster NGC 371 (0.4° to the east).

Compared to NGC 346, it’s larger (10 arcminutes), more diffuse and made up of fainter stars. Lying 0.3° southwest of NGC 346 is the open cluster NGC 330.

It is bright and compact, around 1 arcminute across, in a rich but faint star field.