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 switches back on at the other edge, often an hour later. Pick your place and what you observe with; the list keeps what you can realistically see.

Naked eye Binoculars Small telescope (80 mm) Telescope (200 mm)

31 occultations you can see from New Delhi with small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 14 nights · 1137 in all from there

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

2 4

1 5

3 6

2 7

1 18

5 19

1 23

1 24

1 25

1 30

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

1
01:49:26 HIP 19341 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
39° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 242° · cusp 73°
2
04:51:26 Gaia …4541824 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
78° up in the E · dark sky · PA 212° · cusp 42°

Night of Fri 4 Sep

1
01:01:36 HIP 24046 V 7.0
Reappears at the dark limb
17° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 277° · cusp 78°

Night of Sat 5 Sep

1
02:18:52 HIP 29955 V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 221° · cusp 37°
2
03:11:27 HIP 30101 V 8.2
Reappears at the dark limb
31° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 254° · cusp 71°
3
04:20:25 HIP 30354 V 8.4
Reappears at the dark limb
45° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 328° · cusp 36°

Night of Sun 6 Sep

1
02:24:58 57 Gem V 5.0
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 02:54:55 at the dark limb
8° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 150° · cusp 40°
2
05:02:42 HIP 36268 V 8.4
Reappears at the dark limb
40° up in the E · dark sky · PA 234° · cusp 43°

Night of Mon 7 Sep

1
04:50:49 HIP 41524 V 6.9
Reappears at the dark limb
24° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 244° · cusp 48°

Night of Thu 17 Sep

1
19:30:11 HIP 80819 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb
24° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 131° · cusp 60°

Night of Fri 18 Sep

1
19:21:21 HIP 85174 V 8.1
Disappears at the dark limb
29° up in the SSW · dark sky · PA 68° · cusp 64°
2
20:39:09 Gaia …8288512 V 7.8
Disappears at the dark limb
21° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 52° · cusp 49°
3
21:13:22 TYC 6837-71-1 V 7.2
Disappears at the dark limb
16° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 7° · cusp 4°
4
21:19:06 TYC 6838-418-1 V 7.8
Disappears at the dark limb
15° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 118° · cusp 66°
5
22:03:58 TYC 6838-60-1 V 8.1
Disappears at the dark limb
8° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 10° · cusp 7°

Night of Sat 19 Sep

1
21:06:45 TYC 6852-858-1 V 8.0
Disappears at the dark limb
24° up in the SSW · dark sky · PA 50° · cusp 52°

Night of Tue 22 Sep

1
23:39:36 20 Cap V 6.3
Disappears at the dark limb
31° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 49° · cusp 67°

Night of Wed 23 Sep

1
20:24:59 45 Cap V 6.0
Disappears at the dark limb
41° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 22° · cusp 43°

Night of Thu 24 Sep

1
01:51:01 HR 8612 V 6.2
Disappears at the dark limb
32° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 57° · cusp 77°

Night of Fri 25 Sep

1
04:28:59 HIP 115951 V 6.9
Disappears at the dark limb
13° up in the W · dark sky · PA 55° · cusp 67°

Night of Tue 29 Sep

1
20:14:39 μ Ari V 5.8
Reappears at the dark limb
6° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 193° · cusp 36°

Night of Wed 30 Sep

1
20:59:59 16 Tau V 5.5
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 21:38:33 at the dark limb
6° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 110° · cusp 53°
2
21:07:59 Taygeta (19 Tau) V 4.3
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 21:59:36 at the dark limb
7° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 78° · cusp 85°
3
21:23:50 Maia (20 Tau) V 3.9
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 22:01:38 at the dark limb
10° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 113° · cusp 51°
4
21:54:55 TYC 1799-184-1 V 7.3
Reappears at the dark limb
16° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 200° · cusp 36°
5
22:18:16 21 Tau V 5.8
Reappears at the dark limb
21° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 243° · cusp 79°
6
22:19:42 22 Tau V 6.5
Reappears at the dark limb
21° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 235° · cusp 71°
7
22:36:11 HIP 17664 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
25° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 214° · cusp 51°
8
23:19:02 HIP 17759 V 6.5
Reappears at the dark limb
34° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 289° · cusp 55°
9
01:01:16 HIP 18046 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
55° up in the E · dark sky · PA 253° · cusp 89°
10
01:22:38 HIP 18106 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
60° up in the E · dark sky · PA 238° · cusp 74°

Reading the list

The Moons are drawn from LRO LOLA topography (a 40 KB relief map), lit by the Sun as it is at that moment and turned to the Moon's real libration: north up, east to the left. A dark-limb event — the star vanishing into, or popping out of, the unlit edge of the Moon — is easy to see. At the bright limb only bright stars show against the glare. PA is where on the limb it happens, measured from north through east; the cusp angle is the distance from the nearest horn of the crescent. graze marks a star passing within 3″ of the edge from your place: a few kilometres from a graze line, where it may blink several times 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

Those limits are rules of thumb: the dark-limb limit drops by 2.5 magnitudes × (lit fraction − 0.4) in moonglare and by 1 in twilight; events with the Moon under 5° are left out, and daylight events except for the brightest stars. Stars are from Gaia DR3 to G 9.5, with Hipparcos-2 for the brightest and the Yale Bright Star Catalogue for names; the Moon is from the JPL DE431 ephemeris. Times are for the Moon's mean limb, ±2 s — mountains at the edge can move a contact by a few seconds, and much more near a graze.