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 back on at the other edge, often an hour later. Pick your place and instrument; the list shows only what you can see.
21 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 16 nights · 1124 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 Thu 3 Feb
- 122:45:46 HIP 11897 V 8.1Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 4 Feb
- 100:49:02 TYC 1798-588-1 V 7.3Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 5 Feb
- 120:34:50 χ Tau V 5.4Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 21:32:10 at the bright limb
Night of Sun 6 Feb
- 102:29:46 HR 1889 V 6.5Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 7 Feb
- 102:14:10 HR 2439 V 6.4Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 8 Feb
- 120:05:59 HR 2879 V 6.5Disappears at the dark limb
- 222:49:34 HIP 37121 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 10 Feb
- 119:29:54 HIP 46713 V 6.9Reappears at the dark limb
- 220:16:50 HIP 47022 V 6.8Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 21:00:50 at the dark limb
Night of Sat 12 Feb
- 121:57:24 TYC 4923-978-1 V 7.1Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 13 Feb
- 101:58:38 TYC 5527-1965-1 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:11:15 Gaia …4481664 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 14 Feb
- 101:37:34 HIP 65235 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 15 Feb
- 102:29:51 HIP 69828 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 16 Feb
- 104:50:44 TYC 6762-1235-1 V 7.3Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 17 Feb
- 103:23:21 Gaia …4375808 V 7.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 18 Feb
- 104:47:24 TYC 6820-222-1 V 8.5Reappears at the dark limb
- 205:41:56 HIP 84144 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 305:48:32 HIP 84192 V 8.5Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 19 Feb
- 105:01:48 TYC 6850-5008-1 V 8.4Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 20 Feb
- 105:21:43 HR 7168 V 6.4Reappears 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.