The Moon and the stars — August 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.
25 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 13 nights · 1130 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 Fri 6 Aug
- 119:46:56 Gaia …4481664 V 7.2Disappears at the dark limb
- 221:05:45 21 Vir V 5.5Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 7 Aug
- 120:07:47 HIP 65319 V 8.5Disappears at the dark limb
- 220:25:05 HIP 65356 V 8.2Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 8 Aug
- 121:32:19 HIP 69828 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 9 Aug
- 121:00:48 HIP 74206 V 6.5Disappears at the dark limb
- 222:57:47 HR 5655 V 6.5Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 10 Aug
- 120:43:45 HIP 78647 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
- 223:29:45 HR 6001 V 5.3Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 11 Aug
- 122:48:32 TYC 6819-740-1 V 7.2Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 19 Aug
- 104:53:22 HIP 116422 V 6.5Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 20 Aug
- 100:47:22 Gaia …4237568 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 22 Aug
- 100:08:47 HIP 8448 V 7.6Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 23 Aug
- 101:56:56 Gaia …5696256 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 24 Aug
- 123:16:37 TYC 1798-411-1 V 7.5Reappears at the dark limb
- 200:54:33 TYC 1799-135-1 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 303:28:22 TYC 1799-73-1 V 8.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 404:12:18 TYC 1803-486-1 V 8.1Reappears at the dark limb
- 505:12:32 18 Tau V 5.7Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 26 Aug
- 101:32:59 TYC 1869-791-1 V 7.9Reappears at the dark limb
- 201:35:40 TYC 1869-102-1 V 8.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 304:03:53 TYC 1870-752-1 V 8.5Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 27 Aug
- 103:00:09 HIP 32743 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:34:16 HIP 33054 V 7.4Reappears at the dark limb
- 305:32:48 37 Gem V 5.7Reappears 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.