The Moon, Venus and Jupiter formed a triangular conjunction in the crisp Flinders Ranges dawn sky on August 20th, 2025.
Conjunction of Moon, Venus and Jupiter
Aurora australis
Spectacular Aurora australis viewed over the Northern Flinders Ranges in early May, looking south before dawn.
Learn more about aurora and subscribe to aurora alerts at the Bureau of Meterorology Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre website.
Constellations rising
Pleiades, Taurus and Orion rising in the clear winter sky at Arkaroola at dawn, a perfect location for Arkaroola’s state of the art astronomy tour.
Pre-dawn planetary line up
Jupiter and Venus move into conjunction, visible on May 1, 2022. Neptune is also indicated in this array but unlikely to be seen with the naked eye.
Moonset
Uncovering the Acraman ejecta layer
The Acraman Story is a fascinating interactive presentation outlining the discovery of the Acraman ejecta layer by geologist Dr Victor Gostin and his colleagues.
The Acraman layer is a narrow pebbly deposit of volcanic material set within the purple siltstone of the Flinders Ranges Bunyeroo Formation. While the oldest rocks of the Flinders Ranges were 900my, the Acraman samples were dated at 1600my. Early speculation pointed toward a volcanic bomb coming from the near west but this and other suggestions of deposition by glacial rafting, cliff debris or river movement were not viable.
After years of investigation, attention turned to the possibility of asteroid impact. A large asteroid impact scar (30-90km diameter) was found in the 1600my granite rich Gawler Ranges to the west of the Flinders Ranges – a perfect date match for the Acraman volcanic deposit.
The team pieced together an amazing story. The 4.8km wide Acraman asteroid hit the Gawler Ranges at around 22km per second around 680my, the age of the Bunyeroo silts. The asteroid itself was vaporised on impact and the impact into the ancient volcanic terrain displaced granitic rock (ejecta) layer which landed as far as the Flinders Ranges to the east.
Enter the The Acraman Story interactive.
Great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter
The Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, viewable in the night sky just once every 800 years, seen over the Flinders Ranges, 21st December 2020.
Solar cycle 25 has begun
Astronomy at Arkaroola
Arkaroola offers an extraordinary astronomy experience with a remotely controlled observatory stacking high definition images within seconds. Doug Sprigg is at the helm of the SkyX Pro console of a breathtaking live tour of the southern sky, including views of galaxies, planetary nebulae, globular clusters and our nearby gas giants.
More on Arkaroola’s three observatories on the Arkaroola website.
SkyWatch in the Flinders Ranges
Dean Davidson’s Skywatch portable planetarium was thrilling children at Leigh Creek Area School and Marree Area School this week, followed by community astronomy night viewings. The famously dark skies of the Flinders Ranges availed excellent views of the Milky Way and the Dark Emu. Saturn and Jupiter were crowd-pleasers, as always.
