Grazing occultations are always visible at the projections onto the surface of the Earth of the lines tangent to the lunar limb that are created by the motion of the Moon relative to the star being occulted.

Most information about the lunar profile continues to be provided by visual observers using simple equipment. Everyone is to be encouraged to join expeditions to observe grazes, because the accuracy of the observed profile is proportional to the number of stations. The use of grazes improves knowledge of the lunar profile (needed for the analysis of solar eclipse timings), data about close binaries, and galactic rotation from stellar reference-frame determination. Contact timings made near the edges of a solar eclipse track, for example, enable the diameter of the Sun to be derived relative to the lunar diameter, the latter being determined from occultations.