The controversy over sighting the crescent of Shawwal continues, but the Saudi astronomer Abdullah Al-Khudairi, advisor to the Astronomical Observatory in Majmaah, confirmed that the clear weather factor is what will resolve this controversy over seeing the crescent of Shawwal next Thursday.
And an astronomical situation similar to the controversy we are experiencing occurred during this year. In the year 2004 AD, 1425 AH, the entry of Sha’ban was announced, when the crescent was sighted on Tuesday, September 14, and it stayed 7 minutes, with a height of 30:1 degrees and an elongation of 33:3 from Jabal Al-Fara in Medina. Also in 2016, the crescent stayed on the horizon for 20 minutes, and the Astronomy Center had confirmed the impossibility of seeing the crescent, but human vision was completed, and 21 witnesses testified to “sighting the crescent” in Hotat Sudair, Shaqra and Tamir.
On the evening of Thursday, Ramadan 29 of the year 1444, corresponding to April 20, 2023 CE, the crescent stayed 24 minutes after the sun at the Al-Majmaah Astronomical Observatory of the University of Hotat, and the observation of the crescent depends on the factor of air purity. As for the first Friday of Shawwal mathematically, the crescent stays 85 minutes after sunset and is seen from inside the cities.
– Abdullah Muhammad Al-Khudairi (@ amfk1433) April 16, 2023
Al-Khudairi explained, in a series of tweets via his Twitter account, that there are those who write and are not academic astronomers. Some of them set a standard in his name, and found someone to organize for it, not knowing that his standard will not be achieved in the lunar months, either 30 days or 29 days, even if His companion looked closely and found that there would not be a month of 29 days, and this is contrary to the mathematical scientific rule of the path of the moon and the sun and the legitimacy of the hadith of the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace).
And he added: “The crescent’s stay after the sun undoubtedly has an effect. The longer the crescent stays, the easier it is to see if the weather is clear, and sometimes it has a long stay and is not seen because of the weather, and sometimes it stays short and is seen.”
Al-Faki Al-Khudairi indicated that the crescent stays “on the evening of Thursday, Ramadan 29 of the year 1444, corresponding to April 20, 2023 AD, after sunset at the Majmaah University Astronomical Observatory site in Hotat Sudair for 24 minutes. Minutes after sunset, and seen from inside the cities.
