{"id":658809,"date":"2026-10-27T18:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T18:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/658809\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T18:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T18:12:13","slug":"watch-the-moon-swallow-the-bright-blue-pleiades-star-cluster-tonight-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/658809\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch the Moon swallow the bright blue Pleiades star cluster tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Moon occults the northern part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/astrophotography\/stars\/star-clusters\/pleiades\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pleiades<\/a> open cluster on the night of 27\/28 October 2026, getting interesting from around 23:45 UT (19:45 EDT).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Moon will be very bright, showing a 95%-lit waning gibbous phase.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Binoculars will show the Pleiades stars well, as will a small telescope with a low-power eyepiece.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When separated, the Moon looks quite large in the sky and the Pleiades look fairly small.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, put them together and the truth is revealed: the Pleiades look significantly larger than the apparent size of the Moon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although the cluster doesn\u2019t have a distinct, sharp boundary, the main stars will fit inside a circle 1\u00b0 across.<\/p>\n<p>Quick video guide showing how to see the lunar occultation of the Pleiades on 27\/28October 2026<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1039\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793124733_295_moon-pleiades-27-28-october-2026.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the lunar occultation of the Pleiades, 27\/28 October 2026. Credit: Pete Lawrence\" class=\"wp-image-195166\"\/>Diagram showing the lunar occultation of the Pleiades, 27\/28 October 2026. Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Moon is 0.5\u00b0 across and fits comfortably within the cluster.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the UK, in the early hours of 28 October the Moon\u2019s apparent sky track takes it across the northern part of the cluster, the brightest Pleiad occulted being mag. +3.8 Maia (20 Tauri).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dimmer named Pleiads in the Moon\u2019s path are Celaeno (16 Tauri), Taygeta (19 Tauri) and Sterope (21 Tauri).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For those in the north of the UK, the Moon will appear slightly more embedded in the cluster than it does to those in the south.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Times and positions will vary depending on your location. Start watching at least 15 minutes earlier than the time stated. Moon\u2019s phase: 94% waning<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you manage to observe or photograph the lunar occultation, get in touch by emailing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/news\/mailto:contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Moon occults the northern part of the Pleiades open cluster on the night of 27\/28 October 2026,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-658809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}