The Moon and the stars — July 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.
13 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 10 nights · 1100 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 Tue 4 Jul
- 102:03:36 HIP 84478 V 6.3Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 5 Jul
- 100:32:36 HIP 89097 V 6.8Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 10 Jul
- 122:43:28 θ Aqr V 4.3Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 15 Jul
- 102:54:27 HIP 9777 V 8.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:21:22 Gaia …9086848 V 6.6Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 16 Jul
- 102:56:13 ε Ari A V 5.2Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 03:51:38 at the dark limb
- 203:58:07 HIP 13892 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 17 Jul
- 102:02:36 HIP 17923 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
- 202:23:56 HIP 17999 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Tue 18 Jul
- 104:09:19 Gaia …7061888 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 26 Jul
- 120:36:32 HIP 59346 V 6.5Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 28 Jul
- 120:29:50 HIP 68314 V 7.1Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 30 Jul
- 121:22:34 3 Sco V 5.9Disappears 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.