The Milky Way is about 13 billion years old. Our home in the cosmos is a large spiral galaxy, about 100,000 light-years across, and home to at least 100 billion stars.
Like the Sun and the Earth, and other planets in our solar system, the Milky Way itself is revolving, taking 200 million years to complete a single rotation.
Our galaxy is part of a group of approximately 54 galaxies called the Local Group. Most of the group are dwarf satellite galaxies clustered around the three largest: the Milky Way, Andromeda, and Triangulum.
In Australia, we can see the Milky Way all year round. What we call ‘Milky Way season’ is the time when Milky Way viewing is at its finest, with the galaxy high in the sky, making it great for stargazing and astrophotography.
Want to skip ahead to learn the best time is to see the Milky Way, and the best places to go for spectacular views? Just follow the links:
When can I see the Milky Way?
Where do I go to see the Milky Way?
Milky Way and island universes
For centuries, many astronomers considered the Milky Way to be the entirety of the universe. The brightest minds firmly believed that the glowing gas clouds they saw as fuzzy patches were ‘spiral nebulae’ within our galaxy.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed the idea of the Milky Way being an “island universe”, one galaxy of many, back in 1755. But in 1920, the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis set out to settle the matter.
Their Great Debate aimed to resolve the small matter of the universe’s size.
The Milky Way's Great Debate
Harlow Shapley argued that spiral nebulae, such as the Great Andromeda Nebula, were small and lay within the Milky Way.
Heber Curtis disagreed. He said they were instead galaxies, and independent of the Milky Way. But this meant that they had to be both incredibly large and very distant. At the time, astronomers generally considered Shapley the winner of the debate.
Then, in 1925, an astronomer named Edwin Hubble used Cepheid variable stars (discovered by Henrietta Swan Leavitt) to show that Andromeda was a galaxy, far outside the Milky Way.
Hubble proved Curtis was correct, the Great Andromeda Nebula became a galaxy, and the Milky Way was no longer the Universe.
When can I see the Milky Way?
Milky Way season runs between April and October, and in keeping with the six seasons recognised by Western Australia’s Noongar people, that’s roughly from Djeran to Kambarang.
For the first couple of months of Milky Way season, the galactic bulge starts the night low between the east and south east. As the season progresses, the bulge rotates higher in the sky earlier in the night.
The incredible WA astrophotographer Michael Goh has generously made his 2026 Astro planning calendar available for stargazers to download.
Michael’s carefully curated calendar contains a wealth of priceless information, including Moon luminosity, Milky Way core start and end times, and elevation details. With this info, you can find your best days and times to see the Milky Way.
Where do I go to see the Milky Way?
The Milky Way is best seen away from bright city lights on dark nights when there’s no moonlight.
Even without a telescope, the Milky Way is a spectacular sight, and it looks amazing through a pair of binoculars. Look to the south east and south west well after sunset on dark nights around the New Moon for some of the best views of the Milky Way.
Astrotourism towns throughout WA are some of the best places to see the Milky Way.
The Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park and nearby Lake Thetis offer spectacular sights of the Milky Way. Iconic Wave Rock is a popular destination for astrophotographers and stargazers wanting the best views of the Milky Way.
For astrophotographers who like something different for their shots, Gascoyne Junction boasts an unrivalled astrophotography hotspot, with a historic Cessna light aircraft in the Two Rivers Memorial Park.
Find more places to add to your list, read our post Top 6 Places to see the Milky Way.
Anatomy of the Milky Way
In this artist’s impression of the Milky Way, courtesy of ESA, the left image shows our galaxy’s Galactic Disc spiral structure. This is where most of the Milky Way’s stars live, mixed with some gas and cosmic dust. This disc is about 100 000 light-years across, and the Sun sits about halfway between its centre and edge.
The right image is an edge-on view of the galaxy. This view shows how the Galactic Disc is flattened and warped. From this point of view, the disc warps ‘down’, with dust lanes coming down from the galactic plane.
The image highlights the Milky Way’s Galactic Bulge, located in its central region. This ‘bulge’ hosts about 10 billion stars.
Beyond the disc and the bulge is the stellar halo. Roughly spherical and about 100 000 light-years across, the ‘halo’ contains isolated stars and many globular clusters.
Taking a wider view, an even larger halo of invisible dark matter wraps around the Milky Way.
Jay Chesters
Jay Chesters is an award-winning wordsmith and science communicator with a little bit of a thing for the stars.
A cosmic storyteller with a love for astronomy and space that's out of this world, Jay’s always eager to share his knowledge and passions.
