Free night sky wallpapers for Mac: eight 5K skies, from Orion to a supermoon

Free night sky wallpapers for Mac and MacBook in 5K, each a real sky on a real date: Orion over New York, a supermoon, the Southern Cross and the ISS.

By FalconPublished 20 October 20269 min read

Every wallpaper on this page is the sky over a named city at a named minute, free to download at 5120 by 2880 for your Mac or MacBook: Orion over New York on a moonless December night, November's supermoon rising with the Pleiades, the space station sliding past Jupiter over London, the Southern Cross over Bengaluru, and four more. My app, Orbit for Mac, drew all eight, and you're welcome to them for personal use.

For each one I gave Orbit's engine a city, a date and a direction to face, and it put every star and planet where it will be at that minute, as seen from a dark field near that city. I ran the numbers on 20 October 2026.

I switched off Orbit's star and planet names on all eight, and left the constellation lines on only where the shape is the point. The hills along the bottom are Orbit's own, the same three ridges at the same compass bearings in every city, so the east-facing pictures from New York, London and Tokyo share one horizon.

Wallpaper	City and local time	Facing	File
Orion and Sirius	New York, 9:30 PM, 9 Dec 2026	East	0.6 MB
Scorpius and the Milky Way	Los Angeles, 10:30 PM, 3 Jul 2027	South	0.8 MB
The Southern Cross	Bengaluru, 11:30 PM, 6 Apr 2027	South	0.8 MB
The space station and Jupiter	London, 5:34 AM, 21 Oct 2026	East	0.5 MB
The November supermoon	New York, 6:30 PM, 24 Nov 2026	East	0.6 MB
A crescent Moon and Jupiter	Chicago, 9:10 PM, 6 Jul 2027	West	0.6 MB
A half Moon at golden hour	Los Angeles, 4:30 PM, 17 Nov 2026	South	0.7 MB
A daytime Moon	Tokyo, 3:30 PM, 20 Nov 2026	East	0.6 MB

The eight skies, worked out with Orbit's engine on 20 October 2026 and drawn by Orbit for Mac 1.0. Every file is a 5120 by 2880 JPEG.

Night sky wallpapers for Mac, in 5K

Orion and Sirius over New York, December

Find the three stars of Orion's Belt at upper right, between orange Betelgeuse and white Rigel, and follow them straight down to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. The Moon turns new the evening before and sets a few minutes after the Sun, so once it's dark there's nothing to wash them out. How to find Orion is the outdoor version.

A dark blue night sky full of small stars above near-black hills, with a faint haze running up the middle. Upper right, the three stars of Orion's Belt between an orange star and a white one; low on the right, one very bright white star; another bright star below the middle. — Orion and Sirius climbing in the east over New York at 9:30 PM on 9 December 2026, a moonless night.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.6 MB)

Scorpius and the Milky Way over Los Angeles, July

Scorpius stands upright above the hills with Antares at its heart, a red supergiant with a diameter about 700 times the Sun's. Its tail curls down to the left, and the pale band slanting across the left half of the sky is the Milky Way, which Orbit draws faintly. I left the lines on for this one, because without them the scorpion is a lot of dots.

A dark night sky with thin constellation lines above near-black hills. In the middle, a long curling figure of stars with an orange star near its top; a faint pale band of light slants across the left half of the sky. — Scorpius and a faint Milky Way in the south over Los Angeles at 10:30 PM on 3 July 2027, a moonless summer night, with constellation lines on.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.8 MB)

The Southern Cross over Bengaluru, April

This one is my own city's sky, minus the streetlights. The Cross stands nearly upright, low and almost due south, with the two Pointers, Alpha and Beta Centauri, below it to the left. It never rises over Los Angeles, and why Bengaluru gets it comes down to latitude.

A dark night sky with thin constellation lines above near-black hills. Just left of centre and low, a small upright cross of four stars; to its left and lower, two bright stars close together. — The Southern Cross standing low in the south over Bengaluru at 11:30 PM on 6 April 2027, with Alpha and Beta Centauri to its left and constellation lines on.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.8 MB)

The space station passing Jupiter over London

Here the station has been out of Earth's shadow for a minute or two. Its cyan trail points back past Jupiter, the cream dot it has passed. Mars is the small red one higher up, and the white star underneath is Regulus. The two planets keep closing in after this, and by 16 November they're 1.2 degrees apart.

I worked the pass out with Orbit's engine from the orbit data of 20 October, and Heavens-Above showed the same pass in its list of 20 October: highest at 48 degrees in the south-southeast at 5:33 AM on the 21st, and down to 10 degrees in the east by 5:37. How to know if you saw the ISS has the tells, if you want to check one yourself.

A dark starry sky above near-black hills. Right of centre, a small bright white-cyan point with a thin straight cyan streak behind it, reaching towards a bright cream-coloured dot; a reddish dot higher up and a white star below. — The International Space Station moments after passing Jupiter, seen from London at 5:34 AM on 21 October 2026, with Mars above and Regulus below. Worked out from the orbit data of 20 October, so the time can shift by a few seconds as the orbit updates.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.5 MB)

Moon wallpapers for MacBook and Mac

Full Moon wallpaper: the November supermoon and the Pleiades

The full Moon of 24 November is the Beaver Moon, and the Old Farmer's Almanac calls it the first of three supermoons in a row. Here it's rising in Taurus over New York. Above it to the right is a tiny knot of stars, the Pleiades, a cluster NASA calls easy to see with the unaided eye. Aldebaran is the orange star underneath. The supermoons guide has the dates and moonrise times.

Orbit draws the Moon over three times its real width, big enough to show its phase, and it doesn't fade the stars for moonlight. An actual full-Moon night shows far fewer stars than this.

A full Moon in a soft round glow, left of centre in a dark starry sky above near-black hills. Above it to the right, a tiny tight cluster of stars; below right, an orange star; a bright yellowish point high on the right. — The Beaver supermoon rising in Taurus, with the Pleiades above it, over New York at 6:30 PM on 24 November 2026.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.6 MB)

A crescent Moon and Jupiter at dusk, Chicago

About 40 minutes after sunset, Jupiter is the cream dot right above a 13% crescent. Look up and left for Regulus, then further for Mars, the small red one. Sky Tonight has the Moon and Jupiter at their closest that evening, about 2.2 degrees apart.

A dusk sky fading from deep blue at the top to pink-violet low on the right, over dark hills. Just above the middle of the horizon, a thin crescent Moon with a bright cream point right above it; a small red dot higher to the left. — A thin crescent Moon under Jupiter in the west over Chicago, about 40 minutes after sunset on 6 July 2027.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.6 MB)

A half Moon at golden hour, Los Angeles

The Sun is low, just off the right edge, so the sky warms to peach along the hills, and a half Moon hangs at upper left. Orbit's engine puts sunset at 4:48 PM, and timeanddate.com gives the same minute.

A late-afternoon sky fading from strong blue at the top to warm peach at the horizon, over three layers of brown-grey hills. Upper left, a small half-lit Moon. — A half Moon over the hills to the south at 4:30 PM in Los Angeles on 17 November 2026, about 20 minutes before sunset.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.7 MB)

A blue sky with a daytime Moon, Tokyo

Here a pale Moon, 77% lit, is coming up in the east into a clear afternoon sky, an hour before sunset. If your desktop is already busy with windows, start with this one.

A clear daytime sky, deep blue at the top and pale near the horizon, over three layers of blue-grey and slate hills. A pale, mostly lit Moon sits a little right of centre. — A daytime Moon rising in the east over Tokyo at 3:30 PM on 20 November 2026.

Download (5120 × 2880, JPEG, 0.6 MB)

What size wallpaper does a MacBook need?

At least as many pixels as its screen, and every file here has more than any MacBook. MacBook screens are a little taller than 16:9, though, so when a 5120 by 2880 picture fills one, a strip comes off each side. The screen sizes are from Apple's spec pages for the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Studio Display.

Mac	Screen (pixels)	Off each side
MacBook Air 13-inch	2560 by 1664	about 7%
MacBook Air 15-inch	2880 by 1864	about 6.5%
MacBook Pro 14-inch	3024 by 1964	about 7%
MacBook Pro 16-inch	3456 by 2234	about 6.5%
MacBook Neo	2408 by 1506	about 5%
Studio Display	5120 by 2880	nothing

Apple's screen sizes, and how much of a 5120 by 2880 picture comes off each side when it fills the screen

If you're on a MacBook Neo, this guide covers the live wallpapers that go easy on its 8 GB.

How to set a picture as your Mac wallpaper

Download the JPEG. On macOS 15 Sequoia or later, the quickest way is to Control-click the file in the Finder and choose Set Desktop Picture.

Or open System Settings, click Wallpaper in the sidebar, click Add Photo, then Choose File (Choose, on Sequoia) and pick the JPEG. You can also drag the file onto the thumbnail at the top of Wallpaper settings. Apple's own steps are in Customize the wallpaper on your Mac.

If you use several Spaces or displays, Apple's wallpaper settings page says to turn on Show on all Spaces so they all get the same picture.

Is there a live night sky wallpaper for Mac?

Yes, and these eight came out of one. The London picture holds the station at 5:34 AM forever; the station itself has set by 5:39. Apple's dynamic wallpapers only brighten and darken through the day (here's what to check when one stops changing), so for a sky that keeps up, you need an app.

Orbit for Mac draws the sky over your city for the current minute, behind your desktop icons, and redraws it once a minute, so it turns blue by day and fills with stars after dark. During every visible pass the station crosses the screen as a white point with a short cyan trail, rising and fading as it does overhead. What the app can't do is jump to a date you pick. I drew these ahead of time with its renderer, and the app shows the sky as it is now, plus a twelve-second preview of the next station pass.

The sky moves about four pixels a minute on a 1080p screen, so you notice it when you look up after an hour, not while you watch. Living with a real sky wallpaper is what that's like day to day, and how to get a live wallpaper on a Mac compares every way to get motion behind your windows. Each 5K picture here took the renderer under a tenth of a second on my Mac mini, which is part of how a live wallpaper can idle at almost no CPU.

Orbit: Live Sky Desktop is $6.99 once on the Mac App Store (₹699 in India), with no subscription and no account. It needs macOS 15 or later and is built for Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Pick one of 13 cities or Use My Location, face north, east, south or west, and switch the names and constellation lines on or off, the way I did for these eight. The Mac page has the screenshots.

Common questions

What size is a MacBook wallpaper?

It depends on the screen. Apple lists the 13-inch MacBook Air at 2560 by 1664 pixels, the 15-inch at 2880 by 1864, the 14-inch MacBook Pro at 3024 by 1964, the 16-inch at 3456 by 2234 and the MacBook Neo at 2408 by 1506. The wallpapers on this page are 5120 by 2880, bigger than all of them. MacBook screens are a little taller than 16:9, so when the picture fills the screen, about 5 to 7% comes off each side.

Why is my Mac wallpaper blurry?

Usually because the picture has fewer pixels than your screen, so macOS has to stretch it. Use one at least as large as your screen's native resolution, which Apple lists on each Mac's tech specs page. All eight wallpapers here are 5120 by 2880.

Are these 4K wallpapers?

They're bigger than 4K. Each is 5120 by 2880 pixels, the native size of Apple's Studio Display, against 3840 by 2160 for 4K UHD. They're JPEGs of 0.5 to 0.8 MB each.

Are Mac wallpapers live?

Not in the sense of moving while you work. Apple's dynamic wallpapers brighten and darken through the day, and its aerials animate as you lock the Mac and as you come back from the lock screen. A wallpaper that keeps changing behind your windows comes from an app, such as Orbit for Mac, which redraws the sky over your city once a minute.

Can I use these wallpapers for free?

Yes. They're free to use as your wallpaper, for personal use. Download the JPEG, then Control-click it in the Finder and choose Set Desktop Picture, or add it in System Settings under Wallpaper.

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