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 back on at the other edge, often an hour later. Pick your place and instrument; the list shows only what you can see.
19 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 13 nights · 1127 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 Thu 1 Apr
- 105:11:23 TYC 6350-699-1 V 8.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 12 Apr
- 119:53:01 Gaia …7471488 V 8.3Disappears at the dark limb
- 220:27:12 TYC 1886-60-1 V 8.0Disappears at the dark limb
- 321:16:34 TYC 1886-406-1 V 8.3Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 14 Apr
- 119:34:31 HR 3264 V 5.8Disappears at the dark limb
- 222:24:36 TYC 1387-746-1 V 7.3Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 15 Apr
- 101:46:22 HIP 46345 V 6.8Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 16 Apr
- 121:56:07 TYC 837-134-1 V 7.4Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 17 Apr
- 120:02:57 58 Leo V 4.8Reappears at the bright limb
Night of Sun 18 Apr
- 100:44:33 HIP 58368 V 6.9Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 20 Apr
- 120:53:13 75 Vir V 5.5Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 21:24:31 at the bright limb
Night of Wed 21 Apr
- 121:39:48 HR 5397 V 6.6Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 24 Apr
- 123:20:09 HR 6387 V 6.1Reappears at the dark limb
- 200:13:37 HIP 84297 V 6.7Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 25 Apr
- 100:12:32 TYC 6851-2770-1 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 203:35:11 HIP 89366 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 26 Apr
- 101:44:50 HIP 93736 V 7.4Reappears at the dark limb
- 203:38:10 HIP 93963 V 7.5Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 27 Apr
- 102:13:49 HIP 98135 V 7.6Reappears 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.