Website for new moon
Shafi Ahmed London
Through the courtesy of your columns, I wish to bring to the notice of the official moon sighting committee and those with Adobe-reader internet facilities, a website maintained by HM Nautical Almanac Office which gives the visibility of the new moon for largely populated centres on earth. (Moon sighting is very problematic in latitudes greater than 60 degrees North or South).The website is: http://websurf.nao.rl.ac.uk After getting the website main menu on the screen 'I accept' and 'Thank you' buttons need to be pressed for the astronomical data screen. Then pressing the Moonviz. option on the left hand side of the screen will allow the name of the place to be put in and then if latitude and longitude of the place is correct the date around which the visibility is required need to be put in. Caution is required as for this Almanac Dhaka is still spelt Dacca and that country names are not listed but only exact place names. The date put in should be the date of the expected astronomical new moon or Amabashya (i.e fully dark moon or no-moon) found from local almanacs. If place name, latitude, longitude and date are correct, pressing the OK button will give a table for the chosen date as well as for the following few days until moon sighting visibility is in no doubt. The timings of sunset and moonset for each day and their difference known as 'lag time' is given for each date with comments about how visible would be the new crescent moon. There are 6 grades of visibility, A is clearly visible, B is visible under perfect conditions, C is 'may need optical aid to find crescent moon', D 'will need optical aid to find the crescent moon', E is 'not visible with a telescope' and lastly F 'Not visible, below the Danjon limit'. This website can be used by authorities to look for and confirm the crescent moon only when it is likely to be seen and not prematurely, thus reducing chaos in this matter. If a particular place or country is clouded over, neighbouring countries can be consulted on this. By proper use of these tables an official Islamic calendar for the whole year (or for several years) can be drawn up in advance by local authorities reducing uncertainty and chaos for religious festivals. For the interest of readers the website data for Dacca shows Ramadan to start from the evening of Wednesday, 5 Oct 2005 ( lag time 65 minutes, visibility A but not before this date), and Ramadan to end with the evening of Thursday , 3 Nov 2005 ( lag time 47 minutes, visibility A, but not before this date), with Eid ul Fitr on the morning of Friday, 4 Nov 2005, with a total of 29 days of fasting.
|
|
