The Moon and the stars — December 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)

35 occultations you can see from New Delhi with small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 20 nights · 1168 in all from there

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

2 4

1 5

2 8

2 9

1 10

1 11

1 12

1 13

2 24

1 27

4 28

1 31

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 1 Dec

1
19:40:59 HIP 19361 V 7.0
Disappears at the dark limb
35° up in the E · dark sky · PA 108° · cusp 88°

Night of Sun 3 Dec

1
00:48:35 5 Gem V 5.8
Reappears at the dark limb
77° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 289° · cusp 70°
2
03:55:37 8 Gem V 6.1
Reappears at the dark limb
61° up in the W · dark sky · PA 244° · cusp 64°

Night of Mon 4 Dec

1
04:09:08 HIP 35106 V 7.0
Reappears at the dark limb
69° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 335° · cusp 33°

Night of Tue 5 Dec

1
21:26:44 HIP 39158 V 7.1
Reappears at the dark limb
9° up in the ENE · dark sky · PA 243° · cusp 50°
2
23:31:21 HR 3158 V 6.2
Reappears at the dark limb
35° up in the E · dark sky · PA 288° · cusp 86°
3
05:50:03 HR 3228 V 6.5
Reappears at the dark limb
58° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 252° · cusp 58°

Night of Thu 7 Dec

1
02:59:42 HR 3938 V 6.0
Reappears at the dark limb
52° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 294° · cusp 87°
2
03:05:43 π Leo V 4.8
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 04:26:54 at the dark limb
54° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 120° · cusp 81°

Night of Fri 8 Dec

1
01:22:14 TYC 257-707-1 V 7.5
Reappears at the dark limb
20° up in the E · dark sky · PA 228° · cusp 25°
2
04:41:31 HIP 53187 V 7.4
Reappears at the dark limb
57° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 328° · cusp 54°

Night of Sat 9 Dec

1
03:14:01 Gaia …4579200 V 7.6
Reappears at the dark limb
29° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 351° · cusp 32°

Night of Sun 10 Dec

1
02:49:29 21 Vir V 5.5
Reappears at the dark limb
11° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 299° · cusp 82°

Night of Mon 11 Dec

1
04:13:21 75 Vir V 5.5
Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 05:11:39 at the dark limb
14° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 96° · cusp 78°

Night of Tue 12 Dec

1
05:46:58 HIP 70991 V 8.1
Reappears at the dark limb
18° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 328° · cusp 45°

Night of Wed 13 Dec

1
06:02:34 TYC 6764-305-1 V 7.3
Reappears at the dark limb
9° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 237° · cusp 51°

Night of Sun 17 Dec

1
17:57:17 HR 7128 V 5.9
Disappears at the dark limb
8° up in the WSW · dusk · PA 57° · cusp 61°

Night of Tue 19 Dec

1
18:50:21 Gaia …2891520 V 8.5
Disappears at the dark limb
21° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 354° · cusp 11°
2
19:46:20 HIP 102419 V 7.0
Disappears at the dark limb
10° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 54° · cusp 72°
3
19:47:54 TYC 6331-1981-1 V 8.5
Disappears at the dark limb
10° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 53° · cusp 70°

Night of Sat 23 Dec

1
21:33:26 HIP 117367 V 7.7
Disappears at the dark limb
34° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 60° · cusp 84°
2
21:34:21 HIP 117359 V 7.4
Disappears at the dark limb
33° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 45° · cusp 69°

Night of Sun 24 Dec

1
18:51:12 HIP 2264 V 7.8
Disappears at the dark limb
70° up in the S · dark sky · PA 107° · cusp 50°
2
19:58:45 HIP 2340 V 7.9
Disappears at the dark limb
62° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 59° · cusp 82°
3
21:38:22 HIP 2491 V 7.0
Disappears at the dark limb
44° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 43° · cusp 66°

Night of Tue 26 Dec

1
23:41:26 Gaia …9086848 V 6.6
Disappears at the dark limb
40° up in the W · dark sky · PA 76° · cusp 87°

Night of Wed 27 Dec

1
00:04:28 ε Ari V 5.2
Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 01:18:54 at the bright limb
47° up in the W · dark sky · PA 97° · cusp 70°
2
00:16:22 HIP 13892 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb
44° up in the W · dark sky · PA 24° · cusp 37°
3
00:16:22 HIP 13892 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb
44° up in the W · dark sky · PA 24° · cusp 37°
4
02:48:55 Gaia …6799872 V 7.3
Disappears at the dark limb
12° up in the WNW · dark sky · PA 97° · cusp 70°

Night of Thu 28 Dec

1
21:18:11 HIP 17832 V 6.5
Disappears at the dark limb
83° up in the SE · dark sky · PA 30° · cusp 38°
2
22:42:38 HIP 17999 V 7.0
Disappears at the dark limb
76° up in the WSW · dark sky · PA 29° · cusp 37°

Night of Sat 30 Dec

1
22:46:47 HIP 27378 V 6.8
Disappears at the dark limb
79° up in the ESE · dark sky · PA 128° · cusp 57°

Night of Sun 31 Dec

1
22:51:47 HIP 32431 V 6.5
Reappears at the dark limb
68° up in the E · dark sky · PA 311° · cusp 36°
2
00:48:35 Gaia …3463808 V 6.8
Reappears at the dark limb
83° up in the SW · dark sky · PA 311° · cusp 50°

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.