Can you find south without a compass? Can you spot the closest stars to Earth? Or our very own Indigenous constellation the Emu in the Sky?

Let us take you on a journey around the night sky with our multimedia tours and maps. You'll learn about stars, planets and galaxies – many of which are unique to the Southern Hemisphere. Along the way discover how our first astronomers viewed the sky through storytelling and find out how light pollution threatens our night-sky heritage.

You can even join in a light pollution survey during National Science Week and help us map the best places to see the stars in Australia.

Thanks and credits

The Big Aussie Star Hunt is a multimedia website and citizen astronomy project developed for National Science Week to coincide with the International Year of Astronomy.

It is based on global light pollution projects such as Globe At Night and Great WorldWide Star Count and aims to not only help people understand light pollution but get to know their night sky.

We would sincerely like to thank the following people who helped make the project happen:

Rob Hollow and Helen Sim (CSIRO) for their guidance.

Astrophysicist Ray Norris (CSIRO) for his expert knowledge about Indigenous astronomy and use of images.

Astronomer Fred Watson (AAO) and amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave for their expert knowledge and enthusiasm.

Astrophotographer David Malin (AAO) and astronomer Michael Bessell (ANU/RSAA) for the use of their amazing images.

Sky maps by Kym Thaloussoudis/skymaps.com

Content: Bernie Hobbs, Darren Osborne, Maryke Steffens

IA: Meena Tharmarajah

Design: Dale Smart, Julie Ramsden.  Finding south images by Gudrun Reiss

Development: Cameron Parker, Daniel Andrews

Producer: Genelle Weule

Executive Producer: Ian Allen

This project was made with the assistance of funding from the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.