The Moon and the stars — February 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)

21 occultations you can see from New Delhi with small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 16 nights · 1132 in all from there

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

1 4

1 5

1 6

1 7

1 8

1 13

2 14

1 15

1 16

1 17

1 18

3 19

1 20

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 3 Feb

1
22:45:46 HIP 11897 V 8.1
Disappears at the dark limb
26° up in the W · dark sky · PA 75° · cusp 87°

Night of Fri 4 Feb

1
00:49:02 TYC 1798-588-1 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb
13° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 117° · cusp 50°

Night of Sat 5 Feb

1
20:34:50 χ Tau V 5.4
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 21:32:10 at the bright limb
78° up in the W · dark sky · PA 135° · cusp 37°

Night of Sun 6 Feb

1
02:29:46 HR 1889 V 6.5
Disappears at the dark limb
17° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 131° · cusp 48°

Night of Mon 7 Feb

1
02:14:10 HR 2439 V 6.4
Disappears at the dark limb
32° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 142° · cusp 44°

Night of Tue 8 Feb

1
20:05:59 HR 2879 V 6.5
Disappears at the dark limb
55° up in the E · dark sky · PA 56° · cusp 45°
2
22:49:34 HIP 37121 V 7.0
Disappears at the dark limb
84° up in the S · dark sky · PA 99° · cusp 88°

Night of Thu 10 Feb

1
19:29:54 HIP 46713 V 6.9
Reappears at the dark limb
18° up in the E · dark sky · PA 303° · cusp 25°
2
20:16:50 HIP 47022 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 21:00:50 at the dark limb
28° up in the E · dark sky · PA 67° · cusp 20°

Night of Sat 12 Feb

1
21:57:24 TYC 4923-978-1 V 7.1
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 337° · cusp 53°

Night of Sun 13 Feb

1
01:58:38 TYC 5527-1965-1 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
48° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 314° · cusp 75°
2
04:11:15 Gaia …4481664 V 7.2
Reappears at the dark limb
50° up in the SSW · dark sky · PA 349° · cusp 40°

Night of Mon 14 Feb

1
01:37:34 HIP 65235 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
33° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 349° · cusp 36°

Night of Tue 15 Feb

1
02:29:51 HIP 69828 V 7.0
Reappears at the dark limb
29° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 243° · cusp 42°

Night of Wed 16 Feb

1
04:50:44 TYC 6762-1235-1 V 7.3
Reappears at the dark limb
35° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 265° · cusp 70°

Night of Thu 17 Feb

1
03:23:21 Gaia …4375808 V 7.8
Reappears at the dark limb
17° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 331° · cusp 39°

Night of Fri 18 Feb

1
04:47:24 TYC 6820-222-1 V 8.5
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 318° · cusp 46°
2
05:41:56 HIP 84144 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
27° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 326° · cusp 38°
3
05:48:32 HIP 84192 V 8.5
Reappears at the dark limb
28° up in the SSE · dark sky · PA 340° · cusp 23°

Night of Sat 19 Feb

1
05:01:48 TYC 6850-5008-1 V 8.4
Reappears at the dark limb
15° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 257° · cusp 80°

Night of Sun 20 Feb

1
05:21:43 HR 7168 V 6.4
Reappears at the dark limb
11° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 282° · cusp 70°

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.