Asteroid occultations — May 2027

Stars hidden by asteroids, on paths across India

An asteroid passes in front of a star. Its shadow, as wide as the asteroid, races across the Earth. Inside it the star blinks out for a few seconds; a few kilometres outside, nothing happens. Each card shows the path and how close it comes. Open one for the map, finder chart and directions.

67 asteroid occultations cross India at night this month · 4 pass over New Delhi (inside the path or within its 1σ margin)

Times in IST, for the moment the shadow passes closest to you. A night runs from noon to noon. On each map the blue band is the path, the green line its centre, and the dot is you.

Reading the list

Green: you're inside the path. Amber: just outside, within 1σ. A miss is likely there, but an edge timing is very valuable. The chance allows for the path's uncertainty: the real path may sit off the prediction by a normal 1σ error. When 1σ is close to the path's width, even the centre line is far from certain.

Tiles show the key numbers. Brightness is star plus asteroid, as seen in the eyepiece. Fade is how much it dims. Up to is the longest the star can vanish, on the centre line. To the path is the drive to get inside the shadow; the list can sort by it.

I watch with keeps events bright enough for your aperture. These limits are a rule of thumb, the one number here that isn't computed. Each is about a magnitude brighter than the aperture's limit, since a fade at the limit is hard to see. A video camera or CCD reaches 2–3 magnitudes deeper. A fade under 0.5 mag needs one, so those tiles are dashed.

Orbits: JPL (JPL SBDB, fetched 2026-09-15), moved forward with DE431, the four largest asteroids and relativity. Stars: Gaia DR3 to G 12.5. The asteroid is treated as a sphere. Real ones are lumpy; timings along the path measure the true shape. The 1σ lines combine the star's and the orbit's errors, never less than 10 mas for the orbit. A RUWE badge marks a star Gaia finds hard to fit, often a close double. It may fade in steps.