Aurora Australis Tonight in Sydney, New South Wales

Sydney sees the aurora australis only when a storm pushes well past the usual range: the forecast needs Kp 7.1 or more, and that is a strong geomagnetic storm, not a routine night. Most years bring few chances, so treat a clear dark evening with a high Kp as the signal to go, and a normal night as a night for something else.

The city faces the wrong way for easy viewing. The Pacific lies to the east and the glow of roughly five million people spreads in every direction, which leaves the southern sky washed out from the CBD, the eastern suburbs and the inner west. Aurora is a red or pink glow low in the south, so you want a spot where the southern horizon drops to open water or bush with no street lighting in line of sight.

The Royal National Park, south of the Sutherland Shire, and the Kurnell side of Botany Bay give you that kind of horizon within an hour or so of the city. Winter is the long dark half of the year, and the equinox months around March and September tend to be more geomagnetically active, so those are the weeks to watch. Cloud from east coast lows is the usual spoiler, which is why a clear-sky check matters as much as the Kp number.