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 back on at the other edge, often an hour later. Pick your place and instrument; the list shows only what you can see.
26 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 16 nights · 1177 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 Tue 12 Jan
- 120:11:29 HR 8716 V 5.9Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 14 Jan
- 121:02:16 TYC 9-753-1 V 8.0Disappears at the dark limb
- 221:36:38 TYC 9-465-1 V 8.1Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 15 Jan
- 119:56:51 HIP 5631 V 6.9Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 16 Jan
- 122:39:41 Gaia …9086848 V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 17 Jan
- 123:43:18 HIP 14394 V 7.7Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 18 Jan
- 122:40:33 Gaia …8960256 V 7.5Disappears at the dark limb
- 223:54:35 HIP 19341 V 7.2Disappears at the dark limb
- 302:33:14 Gaia …4541824 V 7.2Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 19 Jan
- 121:02:39 HIP 24046 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 20 Jan
- 120:52:09 HIP 29955 V 6.7Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 21 Jan
- 105:04:22 HR 2951 V 5.9Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 22 Jan
- 122:13:09 η Cnc V 5.3Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 22:47:57 at the bright limb
- 200:19:06 35 Cnc V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 01:01:13 at the dark limb
- 302:37:03 TYC 1395-2222-1 V 6.7Reappears at the dark limb
- 403:37:53 Gaia …8904448 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 23 Jan
- 104:02:56 HIP 47388 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:52:52 HIP 47468 V 6.9Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 24 Jan
- 103:01:49 48 Leo V 5.1Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 04:02:53 at the dark limb
Night of Mon 25 Jan
- 121:43:36 75 Leo V 5.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 222:51:41 76 Leo V 5.9Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 26 Jan
- 123:48:38 HIP 59292 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 202:16:15 HIP 59676 V 6.6Reappears at the dark limb
- 303:51:50 Gaia …4124544 V 7.6Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 29 Jan
- 105:31:36 HIP 72247 V 7.3Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 30 Jan
- 103:22:40 Gaia …4480128 V 8.0Reappears 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.