On Sunday 19 August 2001 AD, a team of JAS observers went to Southern Jordan to observe the waxing crescent (Jumada Ath-Thani 1422 AH). The place of observation is about 245 Km south of Amman (Capital of Jordan), about 2.5 hours driving. There were two guests with the JAS team, the first was His-Highness Sheikh Salman Bin Jaber Al-Thani from Qatar, and the second was Dr. Shweash Al-Mahameed, the Head of Mawaqeet Section in the Jordanian Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The JAS observers were:-

• Ahmad Aniamat
• Mohammad Odeh
• Emad Al-Ashi
• Tarek Katbeh
• Ali Katbeh
• Mustafa Khalil
• Ahmad Samarah
• Ja'far Rdaydeh
• Sana'a Abdo
• Aziz Muhtaseb
• Mohammad Saleem
• Ibrahim Khader

We reached the location at 18 local time, whereas the sunset was computed to occur at 19:22 LT. The location of observation is called Mubrek Mountain near Ar-Rajef village, about 25 west of Ma'an city, this mountain is one of the well-known Sharah mountains, and the coordinates of the location is:-

• Longitude: 35:28:57 E
• Latitude: 30:14:09 N
• Elevation: 1724 m.
• Time Zone: UT+3

• Mohammad Odeh
• Sana'a Abdo
• Sheikh Salman Al-Thani
• Tarik Katbeh
• Ahmad Samarah
• ??

• Diameter: 254 mm
• Focal Length: 2500 mm, a focal reducer f/6.3 was used, so the actual focal length was 1600 mm
• Eyepiece: Meade Super Plossl 56 mm.
• Magnification: 28.5 X.

• Sheikh Salman Al-Thani.
• Sana'a Abdo
• Aziz Muhtaseb
• And Others.

• Moon's Altitude: 3.6 degrees.
• Sun Altitude: - 3.9 degrees.
• Relative Altitude: 7.5 degrees.
• Elongation: 8.2 Degrees.
• Relative Azimuth: 3.7 degrees.
• Geocentric Moon Age: 13 Hours and 36 Minutes.
• Moonset minus Sunset: 37 minutes.

All the above values are topocentric unless otherwise mentioned.

For sure the crescent was not seen by naked eyes. Lastly, I must say that we were so glad to break the previous JAS record by seeing such very thin crescent, especially that we are approaching the global record of 12 hours and 06 minutes, which we really wish to break soon :-).