The Moon and the stars — September 2026
Lunar occultations of stars to magnitude 9.5, computed for your location
Every night the Moon slides in front of stars. A star doesn't fade behind it: it switches off, then back on at the other edge, often an hour later. Pick your place and instrument; the list shows only what you can see.
31 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 14 nights · 1136 in all from there
Times in IST. A night runs from noon to noon, so an event at 01:30 stays with the evening before. On each Moon, the numbered marks show where on the limb each star disappears or reappears.
Night of Thu 3 Sep
- 101:49:26 HIP 19341 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:51:26 Gaia …4541824 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 4 Sep
- 101:01:36 HIP 24046 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 5 Sep
- 102:18:52 HIP 29955 V 6.7Reappears at the dark limb
- 203:11:27 HIP 30101 V 8.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 304:20:25 HIP 30354 V 8.4Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 6 Sep
- 102:24:58 57 Gem V 5.0Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 02:54:55 at the dark limb
- 205:02:42 HIP 36268 V 8.4Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 7 Sep
- 104:50:49 HIP 41524 V 6.9Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 17 Sep
- 119:30:11 HIP 80819 V 6.8Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 18 Sep
- 119:21:21 HIP 85174 V 8.1Disappears at the dark limb
- 220:39:09 Gaia …8288512 V 7.8Disappears at the dark limb
- 321:13:22 TYC 6837-71-1 V 7.2Disappears at the dark limb
- 421:19:06 TYC 6838-418-1 V 7.8Disappears at the dark limb
- 522:03:58 TYC 6838-60-1 V 8.1Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 19 Sep
- 121:06:45 TYC 6852-858-1 V 8.0Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 22 Sep
- 123:39:36 20 Cap V 6.3Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 23 Sep
- 120:24:59 45 Cap V 6.0Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 24 Sep
- 101:51:01 HR 8612 V 6.2Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 25 Sep
- 104:28:59 HIP 115951 V 6.9Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 29 Sep
- 120:14:39 μ Ari V 5.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 30 Sep
- 120:59:59 16 Tau V 5.5Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 21:38:33 at the dark limb
- 221:07:59 Taygeta (19 Tau) V 4.3Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 21:59:36 at the dark limb
- 321:23:50 Maia (20 Tau) V 3.9Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 22:01:38 at the dark limb
- 421:54:55 TYC 1799-184-1 V 7.3Reappears at the dark limb
- 522:18:16 21 Tau V 5.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 622:19:42 22 Tau V 6.5Reappears at the dark limb
- 722:36:11 HIP 17664 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 823:19:02 HIP 17759 V 6.5Reappears at the dark limb
- 901:01:16 HIP 18046 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 1001:22:38 HIP 18106 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
Reading the list
The Moon images use LRO LOLA terrain (a 40 KB relief map), lit and tilted as at that moment. North up, east left. Dark-limb events are easy to see: the star vanishes at, or reappears from, the Moon's unlit edge. At the bright limb only bright stars show against the glare. PA is where on the edge it happens, measured from north through east. Cusp angle is the distance from the crescent's nearest tip. graze means the star skims the edge from your place and may blink behind mountains.
| Instrument | dark limb | bright limb |
|---|---|---|
| Naked eye | V ≤ 3.0 | V ≤ 1.0 |
| Binoculars | V ≤ 6.5 | V ≤ 3.5 |
| Small telescope (80 mm) | V ≤ 8.5 | V ≤ 5.5 |
| Telescope (200 mm) | V ≤ 9.5 | V ≤ 7.0 |
Rules of thumb: the dark-limb limit drops by 2.5 mag × (lit fraction − 0.4) in moonglare and by 1 mag in twilight. Events with the Moon below 5° are left out, and so are daylight events except for the brightest stars. Stars: Gaia DR3 to G 9.5, Hipparcos-2 for the brightest, names from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue. Moon: JPL DE431. Times use the Moon's smooth edge (±2 s). Mountains can shift a contact by seconds, and by more near a graze.