{"id":254409,"date":"2026-01-27T16:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/254409\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T16:30:24","slug":"as-the-next-full-moon-approaches-well-get-to-see-it-pass-in-front-of-a-beautiful-blue-star-cluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/254409\/","title":{"rendered":"As the next full Moon approaches, we’ll get to see it pass in front of a beautiful blue star cluster"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a chance to catch the Moon passing through the northern portion of the Pleiades open star cluster on Tuesday 27 January, leading to several star occultations.<\/p>\n

‘Lunar occultation<\/a>‘ is the astronomical term given to the effect of the Moon passing in front of a distant planet, star or other celestial body, from our perspective on Earth.<\/p>\n

\"TheCredit: Amit Sharma<\/p>\n

Because the Moon is so close to Earth, relative to the background stars, what you’ll see very much depends on where you live on the planet.<\/p>\n

Some regions, like in North America, for example, will see the Moon pass close to the Pleiades<\/a>, but from the UK and Europe, we’ll get to see the Moon pass in front of some of the stars of the cluster.<\/p>\n

\"AA 68%-lit waxing Moon passes through the northern Pleiades on 27 January 2026 (position of Moon shown for 20:54 UT from central UK)
\nObserving the lunar occultation<\/p>\n

On 27 January 2026, the Moon will be a 68%-lit waxing gibbous. That’s too bright to allow the Pleiades to be easily seen with the naked eye, so using binoculars is recommended.<\/p>\n

The lunar occultation of the Pleiades begins shortly after the sky has darkened, with the Moon appearing to skirt the very northern part of the cluster.<\/p>\n

As this involves a waxing Moon, stars will disappear behind the Moon\u2019s dark limb and reappear from behind the bright one.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Pleiades (top left) and the Moon (bottom right). Credit: Pete Lawrence<\/p>\n

The star Taygeta (19 Tauri) and the pair Sterope and Asterope (21 and 22 Tauri) are definitely in the Moon\u2019s path as seen from the UK, but for Celano (16 Tauri) and Maia (20 Tauri), it depends where you live.<\/p>\n

Further north in the UK, the Moon\u2019s apparent position appears to shift southwards relative to the cluster\u2019s stars.<\/p>\n

\"LunarCredit: Pete Lawrence<\/p>\n

Some locations will get to see a grazing occultation of Celano and Maia, where the Moon\u2019s rugged edge appears to pass in front of them.<\/p>\n

As a result, these stars will appear to blink as they pass behind high- and low-elevation features on the Moon\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n

If you manage to see or photograph the lunar occultation \u2013 or close meeting \u2013\u00a0of the Pleiades and the Moon on 27 January 2026, share your observations and images with us by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagzine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a chance to catch the Moon passing through the northern portion of the Pleiades open star cluster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-254409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}