The Moon and the stars — March 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.
27 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 13 nights · 1168 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 Mon 1 Mar
- 104:35:59 TYC 6850-2130-1 V 8.5Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 2 Mar
- 104:49:32 HIP 92808 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 4 Mar
- 105:40:24 HIP 101666 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 13 Mar
- 121:05:34 HIP 16132 V 7.9Disappears at the dark limb
- 222:04:19 HIP 16295 V 8.2Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 15 Mar
- 122:26:26 HIP 26094 V 7.8Disappears at the dark limb
- 222:27:36 HIP 26134 V 8.1Disappears at the dark limb
- 300:06:57 HR 1902 V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb
- 400:07:04 HR 1902 B V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 17 Mar
- 100:29:48 HIP 37747 V 7.4Disappears at the dark limb
- 200:36:34 HIP 37799 V 7.5Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 18 Mar
- 119:25:48 35 Cnc V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb
- 221:07:01 TYC 1395-1928-1 V 7.4Disappears at the dark limb
- 321:34:38 TYC 1395-2737-1 V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb
- 421:41:16 Gaia …0524544 V 7.4Disappears at the dark limb
- 521:52:37 Gaia …8904448 V 6.8Disappears at the dark limb
- 603:33:32 HIP 43421 V 6.9Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 19 Mar
- 123:27:15 HIP 47388 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
- 200:22:37 HIP 47468 V 6.9Disappears at the dark limb
- 304:13:58 18 Leo V 5.7Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 21 Mar
- 119:05:09 76 Leo V 5.9Disappears at the dark limb
- 203:17:23 HIP 56061 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 22 Mar
- 122:59:51 HIP 59676 V 6.6Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 24 Mar
- 122:04:10 HIP 67896 V 6.6Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 26 Mar
- 123:30:26 TYC 6781-1134-1 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 202:21:30 HIP 77394 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 27 Mar
- 102:38:17 HR 6216 V 6.7Reappears 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.