This Month in the Night Sky – October 2025

Buckle up, star travelers this month is an exciting one, with major astrological events ahead. Check out some of our highlights coming up this month below:

OCT 7: Harvest Moon

October’s Full Moon is called the Hunter’s Moon. This year, it is also the Full Moon closest to the September Equinox (September 22), making it 2025’s Harvest Moon as well.

OCT 21/22: Orionid Meteor Shower

The Orionids are the second meteor shower in October (Only one visible here, in Lake Tekapo). This shower peaks around October 21-22 but usually remains active from around October 2 to November 7.

OCT 29: Mercury At Greatest Elongation East

This might be a good time to try and spot Mercury: The planet appears at its farthest distance from the Sun in the evening sky.

Jewel Box Cluster
The Jewel Box Cluster is a dazzling cosmic gem shining brightly near the Southern Cross. Packed with colourful stars—cool blues, fiery reds, and sparkling whites—it looks like the universe’s very own treasure chest. Even though it’s only about 14 million years old (a teenager in star terms!), it’s already putting on a spectacular light show, when looked through a telescope.
FOMALHAUT
Fomalhaut is like the main character in a sci-fi drama set 25 light-years away—bright, mysterious, and totally extra. Nicknamed the “Lonely Star” it struts across an empty patch of sky with a giant glittery ring of space dust, basically wearing a cosmic halo. Astronomers once thought it had a planet but it turned out to be just a cloud of debris from a massive space smash-up.
47 Tucanae
47 Tucanae is a glittering ball of stars tucked away in the southern sky, about 13,000 light-years from Earth. It’s one of the brightest globular clusters you can see, packed with thousands to millions of ancient stars all huddled together. Some of these stars are over 10 billion years old—older than our Sun! It’s like a cosmic retirement home, but with a twist.

Want to see this for yourself?

Join our expert guides on a stargazing tour and experience the night sky above Lake Tekapo.

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