The Moon and the stars — April 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)

19 occultations you can see from New Delhi with small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 13 nights · 1128 in all from there

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

2 15

1 16

1 17

1 18

1 21

2 25

2 26

2 27

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 1 Apr

1
05:11:23 TYC 6350-699-1 V 8.2
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 191° · cusp 28°

Night of Mon 12 Apr

1
19:53:01 Gaia …7471488 V 8.3
Disappears at the dark limb
56° up in the W · dark sky · PA 165° · cusp 16°
2
20:27:12 TYC 1886-60-1 V 8.0
Disappears at the dark limb
48° up in the W · dark sky · PA 157° · cusp 24°
3
21:16:34 TYC 1886-406-1 V 8.3
Disappears at the dark limb
38° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 90° · cusp 89°

Night of Wed 14 Apr

1
19:34:31 HR 3264 V 5.8
Disappears at the dark limb
81° up in the SW · dusk · PA 109° · cusp 84°
2
22:24:36 TYC 1387-746-1 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb
46° up in the W · dark sky · PA 101° · cusp 87°

Night of Thu 15 Apr

1
01:46:22 HIP 46345 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb
13° up in the W · dark sky · PA 65° · cusp 47°

Night of Fri 16 Apr

1
21:56:07 TYC 837-134-1 V 7.4
Disappears at the dark limb
66° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 127° · cusp 73°

Night of Sat 17 Apr

1
20:02:57 58 Leo V 4.8
Reappears at the bright limb
55° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 298° · cusp 82°

Night of Sun 18 Apr

1
00:44:33 HIP 58368 V 6.9
Disappears at the dark limb
44° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 126° · cusp 70°

Night of Tue 20 Apr

1
20:53:13 75 Vir V 5.5
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 21:24:31 at the bright limb
27° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 191° · cusp 49°

Night of Wed 21 Apr

1
21:39:48 HR 5397 V 6.6
Reappears at the dark limb
23° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 314° · cusp 87°

Night of Sat 24 Apr

1
23:20:09 HR 6387 V 6.1
Reappears at the dark limb
8° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 275° · cusp 86°
2
00:13:37 HIP 84297 V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
17° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 288° · cusp 82°

Night of Sun 25 Apr

1
00:12:32 TYC 6851-2770-1 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
9° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 225° · cusp 43°
2
03:35:11 HIP 89366 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
33° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 293° · cusp 68°

Night of Mon 26 Apr

1
01:44:50 HIP 93736 V 7.4
Reappears at the dark limb
16° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 223° · cusp 48°
2
03:38:10 HIP 93963 V 7.5
Reappears at the dark limb
31° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 316° · cusp 38°

Night of Tue 27 Apr

1
02:13:49 HIP 98135 V 7.6
Reappears at the dark limb
15° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 292° · cusp 57°

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.