The Moon and the stars — October 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)

32 occultations you can see from New Delhi with small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 20 nights · 1189 in all from there

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

1 4

4 5

2 6

1 14

1 15

1 20

1 21

2 22

1 23

1 26

1 27

3 28

1 29

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 Sat 3 Oct

1
00:06:33 TYC 1899-1352-1 V 8.1
Reappears at the dark limb
6° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 324° · cusp 42°

Night of Sun 4 Oct

1
01:51:43 Gaia …7682816 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
14° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 202° · cusp 10°
2
02:02:51 μ1 Cnc V 6.0
Reappears at the dark limb
16° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 258° · cusp 65°
3
02:17:36 HIP 39705 V 7.8
Reappears at the dark limb
19° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 293° · cusp 80°
4
04:02:17 TYC 1927-1095-1 V 8.0
Reappears at the dark limb
41° up in the E · dark sky · PA 324° · cusp 50°

Night of Mon 5 Oct

1
03:26:29 HIP 44749 V 8.2
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the E · dark sky · PA 6° · cusp 12°
2
04:57:13 HIP 44918 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
39° up in the E · dark sky · PA 231° · cusp 33°

Night of Tue 6 Oct

1
04:48:19 HIP 49158 V 7.8
Reappears at the dark limb
24° up in the E · dark sky · PA 328° · cusp 53°

Night of Thu 8 Oct

1
05:40:31 HIP 56988 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
10° up in the E · dusk · PA 265° · cusp 68°

Night of Tue 13 Oct

1
18:31:37 TYC 6762-1235-1 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb
8° up in the WSW · dusk · PA 69° · cusp 45°

Night of Wed 14 Oct

1
18:55:54 Gaia …6718208 V 6.6
Disappears at the dark limb
11° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 108° · cusp 89°

Night of Thu 15 Oct

1
18:47:06 HIP 83505 V 7.7
Disappears at the dark limb
19° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 79° · cusp 70°

Night of Sat 17 Oct

1
18:38:57 HIP 92535 V 7.2
Disappears at the dark limb
32° up in the SSW · dusk · PA 47° · cusp 51°
2
20:51:44 HIP 92808 V 7.8
Disappears at the dark limb
17° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 50° · cusp 54°

Night of Mon 19 Oct

1
22:13:35 HIP 101858 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 22:28:01 at the dark limb
23° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 135° · cusp 30°

Night of Tue 20 Oct

1
18:42:42 ι Cap V 4.3
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 19:52:56 at the bright limb
42° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 13° · cusp 32°

Night of Wed 21 Oct

1
19:14:06 38 Aqr V 5.5
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 20:40:15 at the bright limb
46° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 37° · cusp 58°
2
21:12:26 HIP 109613 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb
49° up in the SSW · dark sky · PA 8° · cusp 29°

Night of Thu 22 Oct

1
23:09:03 HR 8759 V 6.0
Disappears at the dark limb
47° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 14° · cusp 36°

Night of Fri 23 Oct

1
20:11:49 HIP 117260 V 7.2
Disappears at the dark limb
52° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 86° · cusp 74°
2
22:52:34 21 Psc V 5.8
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 23:12:21 at the dark limb
60° up in the SSW · dark sky · PA 123° · cusp 37°
3
01:41:14 25 Psc V 6.3
Disappears at the dark limb
32° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 60° · cusp 79°

Night of Sun 25 Oct

1
02:06:04 101 Psc V 6.2
Disappears at the dark limb
54° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 60° · cusp 40°

Night of Mon 26 Oct

1
02:11:33 26 Ari V 6.1
Reappears at the dark limb
66° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 239° · cusp 74°

Night of Tue 27 Oct

1
03:48:53 7 Tau V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
60° up in the W · dark sky · PA 268° · cusp 67°
2
03:48:53 7 Tau V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
60° up in the W · dark sky · PA 268° · cusp 67°
3
03:48:54 7 Tau V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
60° up in the W · dark sky · PA 268° · cusp 67°

Night of Wed 28 Oct

1
03:08:59 HR 1470 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
82° up in the W · dark sky · PA 247° · cusp 82°

Night of Thu 29 Oct

1
22:19:07 HR 1878 V 6.3
Reappears at the dark limb
23° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 320° · cusp 34°
2
05:31:43 TYC 1870-1884-1 V 7.0
Reappears at the dark limb
65° up in the W · dark sky · PA 247° · cusp 71°

Night of Sat 31 Oct

1
23:22:24 HIP 37914 V 7.7
Reappears at the dark limb
10° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 241° · cusp 51°
2
23:49:41 HIP 37988 V 7.5
Reappears at the dark limb
15° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 272° · cusp 82°

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.