Stargazing at Parkes

By virtue of some of the clearest skies in all of mainland Australia, the regional NSW town of Parkes is one of the country's top spots for witnessing the spectacular beauty of an Aussie night sky. There's a reason the CSIRO radio telescope (known as "The Dish" around which the movie of the same name was based) was placed here, which saw significant involvement in the 1969 moon landing.

The town's small size and relative lack of light pollution only help to further the stargazing conditions, and both amateur astronomers and those simply using the naked eye will come away with a visual feast of the Milky Way by looking up during clear evenings. Parkes is also home to an annual festival of astronomy dubbed AstroFest, which takes place each July when the night skies are at their clearest and attracts a host of amateur astronomers from all over the country.