What Is The Eye of Aldhani & What Does It Look Like?

Episode 4 of Andor took us on a trip to a planet called Aldhani, which is quite new to Star Wars lore as this is an entirely different experience not only for the viewers but also for Cassian himself, who has never been to this planet before. Of course, he had some business to take care of while on Aldhani as he joined up with a small band of rebels that were looking to infiltrate and steal from an Imperial garrison. Their escape plan hinges on something called the Eye of Aldhani. So, what is the Eye of Aldhani?

The Eye of Aldhani is a celestial event that happens once every three years on Aldhani. It’s an entire event with 50 meteor showers blanketing the sky until an “eye” forms over the horizon. However, it isn’t really a meteor shower but is a recurrent band of crystalized noctilucent micro densities.

While the Eye of Aldhani may be a celestial event that’s going to be very beautiful when we eventually get to see it in the future of Andor, it is the most important part of the series thus far because the success of the rebels relies on it and how it is able to hide them from the eyes of the Empire. So, with that said, let’s look at what we know about the Eye of Aldhani. 

What Is The Eye Of Aldhani In Andor?

One of the things that we were able to see in episode 4 of Andor was the introduction of a new planet that we had never seen in Star Wars before. While we do know that the entire Star Wars galaxy is full of different planets, we do know that Star Wars is known to recycle certain planets (Tatooine, for example). But Aldhani is entirely different.

Episode 4 of Andor allowed us to see Cassian and Luthen arriving on a planet that’s full of grasslands, forests, and hills. By that time, Andor had already accepted a job from Luthen because he was offered 200,000 credits to help a band of rebels steal an entire payroll from an Imperial garrison. And the addition of Cassian (hiding in the codename Clem) to the picture made Vel, the leader of the rebel group on the planet called Aldhani, uncomfortable because she didn’t know anything about him.

Nevertheless, because Luthen vouched for Cassian, Vel had no choice but to accept him into their group. Of course, the other members of the group had a similar reaction to Andor joining their band of rebels because they had spent months on that planet to come up with the right plan that would allow them to succeed in their mission. Still, Vel vouched for Andor while also lying to her teammates about him being a part of the entire plan from the very start.

Cassian had to be indoctrinated into the plan first because he didn’t know anything about what the rebels were planning. Vel had already given him a quick rundown of the planet’s history and of the people that live on that planet. But the plan relied a lot on what they knew about the different events happening on that planet, as they needed to find a way to escape the Imperial garrison without getting caught by the forces of the Empire and the TIE Fighters roaming around Aldhani. That was when Gorn, one of the members of the group, introduced an event called the Eye of Aldhani.

The Eye of Aldhani isn’t necessarily an actual eye but is actually an event that allows the indigenous people of Aldhani to see the “eye of the universe” at the end of a beautiful phenomenon that’s native to the planet. As such, the Eye of Aldhani includes an event of multiple meteor showers blanketing the sky all at once until they eventually take the curtains off of the sky to reveal “the eye of the universe,” which is what the Aldhanis call the Eye of Aldhani.

This event happens only once every three years, and that means that it is an important part of the culture of the natives of Aldhani. However, ever since the Empire occupied Aldhani and pushed away some of the natives to far portions of the planet, the event is no longer as exciting as it used to be, considering that the Aldhanis could no longer gather in thousands to witness this great event.

Nemik, the scientifically smart one of the group, was quick to current Gorn by saying that the Eye of Aldhani isn’t actually a meteor shower. As Nemik said:

“It’s a recurrent band of crystalized noctilucent micro densities. Billions of crystals. Very heavy but small and unstable. As the planet passes through the belt, they swarm the atmosphere, heat up, and explode. From the ground, it’s a thing of beauty. In the sky, it’s chaos.”

Nemik continued that they were able to calculate an escape trajectory that would allow them to finish their mission in time before the end of the Eye of Aldhani event. In that sense, they are going to use this event as a way to hide from the eyes of the Empire so that the Imperial TIE Fighters won’t be able to get to them in time as they make their escape from the garrison. 

As such, this event is going to be the most important one in Andor yet because of how it will allow Vel and her team to get in and out of the Imperial garrison without getting detected by the troopers stationed there. We don’t know for certain why or how this celestial event would be able to hide them from the eyes of the Empire. But it is possible that the sky would be too bright for the troopers to know that someone had snuck into their base. It is also possible that the troopers would be too distracted by the Eye of Aldhani event to know what hit them.

What Does The Eye Of Aldhani Look Like?

At this point, we are yet to see what the Eye of Aldhani looks like. But Gorn himself said that it is an event that no one will ever forget due to how beautiful it is. And we can also make assumptions as to what this event looks like.

As Gorn and Nemik said, the meteors or the crystals blanket the sky for quite a while as they “unveil” the “eye of the universe,” which the Aldhanis call the Eye of Aldhani. As such, according to Nemik’s explanation, the crystals possibly fly over space just above the atmosphere of the planet as they heat up and explode.

When the crystals explode due to the heat that they’ve built up, they form a huge cloud of the explosion that resembles an eye to the native Aldhanis, who were probably too primitive to understand what was happening. So, in a sense, this explosion might be shaped like an eye and is probably very bright.

As such, the explosion that unveils the Eye of Aldhani might be bright enough that it would serve as the cover that Cassian and the rebels need to enter and exit the Imperial garrison without getting detected. This is why this event is so important to them.