The Moon and the stars — October 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 back on at the other edge, often an hour later. Pick your place and instrument; the list shows only what you can see.
29 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 15 nights · 1182 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 Oct
- 121:42:02 HIP 13532 V 7.1Reappears at the dark limb
- 223:52:40 ε Ari A V 5.2Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 01:16:06 at the dark limb
Night of Sat 7 Oct
- 121:24:54 HIP 17572 V 6.9Reappears at the dark limb
- 221:41:07 HR 1172 V 5.5Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 22:44:04 at the dark limb
- 323:27:31 HR 1183 V 6.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 8 Oct
- 105:00:47 Gaia …7061888 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 9 Oct
- 101:24:04 TYC 1866-1574-1 V 7.5Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 10 Oct
- 123:54:32 HIP 31903 V 7.4Reappears at the dark limb
- 202:29:52 HIP 32367 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 302:45:28 HIP 32431 V 6.5Reappears at the dark limb
- 403:17:09 HIP 32491 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 505:12:47 TYC 1894-3077-1 V 8.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 11 Oct
- 101:46:20 HIP 37540 V 7.9Reappears at the dark limb
- 203:12:41 TYC 1374-326-1 V 8.3Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 12 Oct
- 103:25:33 HIP 42598 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:21:31 Gaia …6130304 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 13 Oct
- 103:13:40 HIP 47143 V 8.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 205:01:19 HIP 47336 V 6.7Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 14 Oct
- 103:39:09 HIP 51493 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:21:00 HIP 51555 V 8.1Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 15 Oct
- 105:15:53 HR 4419 V 6.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 22 Oct
- 119:31:24 HIP 87422 V 7.8Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 24 Oct
- 119:00:34 HIP 97004 V 8.2Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 25 Oct
- 122:16:53 HIP 101799 V 7.1Disappears at the dark limb
- 222:58:20 HIP 101879 V 7.9Disappears at the dark limb
- 323:30:11 HIP 101906 V 7.2Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 26 Oct
- 121:46:15 18 Aqr V 5.5Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 22:43:48 at the bright limb
- 200:00:00 HIP 105856 V 6.7Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 27 Oct
- 123:02:22 HIP 109378 V 6.5Disappears 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.