The Moon and the stars — January 2027

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)

26 occultations you can see from New Delhi with small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 16 nights · 1178 in all from there

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

2 15

1 16

1 17

1 18

3 19

1 20

1 21

1 22

4 23

2 24

1 25

2 26

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 Tue 12 Jan

1
20:11:29 HR 8716 V 5.9
Disappears at the dark limb
19° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 114° · cusp 42°

Night of Thu 14 Jan

1
21:02:16 TYC 9-753-1 V 8.0
Disappears at the dark limb
32° up in the W · dark sky · PA 41° · cusp 65°
2
21:36:38 TYC 9-465-1 V 8.1
Disappears at the dark limb
25° up in the W · dark sky · PA 77° · cusp 79°

Night of Fri 15 Jan

1
19:56:51 HIP 5631 V 6.9
Disappears at the dark limb
57° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 128° · cusp 30°

Night of Sat 16 Jan

1
22:39:41 Gaia …9086848 V 6.6
Disappears at the dark limb
36° up in the W · dark sky · PA 142° · cusp 19°

Night of Sun 17 Jan

1
23:43:18 HIP 14394 V 7.7
Disappears at the dark limb
36° up in the W · dark sky · PA 10° · cusp 23°

Night of Mon 18 Jan

1
22:40:33 Gaia …8960256 V 7.5
Disappears at the dark limb
62° up in the W · dark sky · PA 38° · cusp 45°
2
23:54:35 HIP 19341 V 7.2
Disappears at the dark limb
47° up in the W · dark sky · PA 126° · cusp 47°
3
02:33:14 Gaia …4541824 V 7.2
Disappears at the dark limb
14° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 41° · cusp 47°

Night of Tue 19 Jan

1
21:02:39 HIP 24046 V 7.0
Disappears at the dark limb
82° up in the E · dark sky · PA 85° · cusp 85°

Night of Wed 20 Jan

1
20:52:09 HIP 29955 V 6.7
Disappears at the dark limb
66° up in the E · dark sky · PA 80° · cusp 71°

Night of Thu 21 Jan

1
05:04:22 HR 2951 V 5.9
Disappears at the dark limb
22° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 163° · cusp 39°

Night of Fri 22 Jan

1
22:13:09 η Cnc V 5.3
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 22:47:57 at the bright limb
54° up in the E · dark sky · PA 49° · cusp 58°
2
00:19:06 35 Cnc V 6.6
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 01:01:13 at the dark limb
79° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 178° · cusp 0°
3
02:37:03 TYC 1395-2222-1 V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
65° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 254° · cusp 70°
4
03:37:53 Gaia …8904448 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
52° up in the W · dark sky · PA 344° · cusp 23°

Night of Sat 23 Jan

1
04:02:56 HIP 47388 V 7.0
Reappears at the dark limb
56° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 302° · cusp 79°
2
04:52:52 HIP 47468 V 6.9
Reappears at the dark limb
45° up in the W · dark sky · PA 299° · cusp 83°

Night of Sun 24 Jan

1
03:01:49 48 Leo V 5.1
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 04:02:53 at the dark limb
68° up in the SSW · dark sky · PA 93° · cusp 69°

Night of Mon 25 Jan

1
21:43:36 75 Leo V 5.2
Reappears at the dark limb
6° up in the E · dark sky · PA 352° · cusp 34°
2
22:51:41 76 Leo V 5.9
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the E · dark sky · PA 322° · cusp 64°

Night of Tue 26 Jan

1
23:48:38 HIP 59292 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
19° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 286° · cusp 80°
2
02:16:15 HIP 59676 V 6.6
Reappears at the dark limb
45° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 354° · cusp 32°
3
03:51:50 Gaia …4124544 V 7.6
Reappears at the dark limb
54° up in the S · dark sky · PA 338° · cusp 48°

Night of Fri 29 Jan

1
05:31:36 HIP 72247 V 7.3
Reappears at the dark limb
37° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 242° · cusp 46°

Night of Sat 30 Jan

1
03:22:40 Gaia …4480128 V 8.0
Reappears at the dark limb
12° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 278° · cusp 86°

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.