The Moon and the stars — January 2028

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)

23 occultations you can see from New Delhi with small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 11 nights · 1144 in all from there

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

1 16

1 19

2 20

2 21

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 3 Jan

1
22:38:53 HIP 116865 V 7.5
Disappears at the dark limb
8° up in the W · dark sky · PA 101° · cusp 54°

Night of Thu 6 Jan

1
21:31:07 ι Ari V 5.1
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 22:10:12 at the bright limb
57° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 4° · cusp 23°
2
23:38:00 HIP 9449 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb
30° up in the W · dark sky · PA 65° · cusp 84°
3
01:05:20 HR 609 V 6.2
Disappears at the dark limb
12° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 23° · cusp 42°

Night of Sat 8 Jan

1
18:20:56 16 Tau V 5.5
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 19:30:56 at the bright limb
55° up in the E · dusk · PA 97° · cusp 74°
2
18:37:57 Taygeta (19 Tau) V 4.3
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 20:00:23 at the bright limb
59° up in the E · dark sky · PA 68° · cusp 77°
3
18:51:23 TYC 1799-184-1 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb
62° up in the E · dark sky · PA 104° · cusp 67°
4
18:58:02 Maia (20 Tau) V 3.9
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 20:09:26 at the bright limb
63° up in the E · dark sky · PA 101° · cusp 70°
5
19:04:45 21 Tau V 5.8
Disappears at the dark limb
65° up in the E · dark sky · PA 63° · cusp 72°
6
19:07:41 22 Tau V 6.5
Disappears at the dark limb
65° up in the E · dark sky · PA 71° · cusp 80°
7
19:40:54 HIP 17664 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb
72° up in the E · dark sky · PA 90° · cusp 81°

Night of Tue 11 Jan

1
21:03:06 ω Gem V 5.2
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 22:20:30 at the bright limb
50° up in the E · dark sky · PA 104° · cusp 84°
2
23:49:00 HIP 34351 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb
84° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 64° · cusp 43°

Night of Sat 15 Jan

1
03:46:26 HIP 54260 V 7.0
Reappears at the dark limb
62° up in the S · dark sky · PA 288° · cusp 82°

Night of Sun 16 Jan

1
02:20:48 HIP 58268 V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
43° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 326° · cusp 60°

Night of Tue 18 Jan

1
02:03:21 HIP 66663 V 6.7
Reappears at the dark limb
15° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 263° · cusp 62°

Night of Wed 19 Jan

1
02:21:01 TYC 6165-687-1 V 8.5
Reappears at the dark limb
6° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 244° · cusp 47°
2
06:15:14 HIP 71689 V 8.5
Reappears at the dark limb
38° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 285° · cusp 89°

Night of Thu 20 Jan

1
04:50:15 HR 5765 V 7.4
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 316° · cusp 55°
2
04:50:38 HR 5765 V 7.0
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 316° · cusp 55°

Night of Fri 21 Jan

1
05:04:14 Antares (α Sco) V 1.0
Reappears at the dark limb
13° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 312° · cusp 53°
2
06:09:31 HR 6145 V 6.1
Reappears at the dark limb
22° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 320° · cusp 44°

Night of Sun 23 Jan

1
06:14:23 TYC 6852-3151-1 V 8.2
Reappears at the dark limb
7° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 254° · cusp 82°

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.