During the 25th astronomical camping for JAS in Al-Azraq desert, we decided to glimpse the very thing waning crescent of Muharram 1420 AH on 14 May at the East before sunrise. The TOPOCENTRIC -NOT GEOCENTRIC- Moon's age was 'minus' 35 hours and 16 minutes. The Moonrise occurred at 03:55, at which we started the observation, and with much happiness I shouted at 04:10 saying .... Here it is !! It was firstly visible by binocular 7X50. We pointed the telescope at the crescent, and so all the observers saw it. After few minutes Mr. Hani Al-Dalee' surprised us by saying:... I can see it by naked eyes !!

Actually it was not that surprise to see such 'relatively' big crescent, but what we managed to know is how long time we will be able to see the crescent ? Will we be able to see it after the sunrise ??

The apparent sunrise occurred at 04:38, which is the same time at which the last observer was able to see the crescent by naked eyes ! But it was still visible by telescope, and we kept tracking it by motor drive for 45 minutes after the sunrise ! Then it was about to leave the field of the telescope ! We had two choices; either to leave it to leave the field, or to try to get it back to the center, but that was a VERY hard job, because it was very very barely visible, and any error could get it lost ! Unfortunately, this what happened ! I believe we were able to track it more, but I guess what we achieved is fine ! Kindly see the below photo for the observed crescent.

The observers were:- Hani Al-Dalee' (ICOP), Khalid Tell (ICOP), Moh'd Odeh (ICOP), Mohammad Murad (ICOP), Ibrahim Odwan, Waleed Ahmad, Amera Al-Hemsy, Ali Sawalmeh, Khalil Konsul (President of JAS), Ahmad Naimat, Yahya Bani Hamad, Ghazaleh Al-Abd

Dr. Monzur Ahmed added later:

So far, the earliest sighting of the crescent was on Sunday 16 May from Iran. The crescent was also seen from Iraq, Jordan, South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, and Canada.

Sunday 16 May

• Iran: ICOP member, Mr. Asadollah Khoddam Mohammadi said: "The crescent of Safar was visible without no difficulty on the evening of May 16th. In Iran the first day of Safar was May 17th (official calendar)."

• Iraq: ICOP member, Mr. Tarek Katbeh informed us that he was able to see the crescent despite the hazy weather.

• Saudi: ICOP member, Mr. Saleh Al-Saab, said: "I could not see the crescent this evening. It was more than 16 degrees elongation , sets 64 minutes after the sun (sunset :18:30) but was not visible because of the thin clouds at the west."

• Jordan: Two groups went to observe the crescent from different locations, and the crescent was very easy to spot by naked eyes ! All the observers saw it directly after the sunset by naked eyes. Personally, I was so surprised by the obviousness of the crescent ! With considerable difficulty we could see the waning crescent of Muharram two days ago, when its age was about minus 35 hours. While the new crescent of Safar (27 hours) was much easier than the waning crescent of Muharram !

  ICOP member, Mr. Moh'd Murad who was with the other group sent the following report:

  "About Nine members of JAS & ICOP joined the observation of Safar 1420 AH crescent, we went to a place near the Eighth Circle in Amman called Abu As-Soos, and we took a telescope and observed the crescent without binoculars. But we had some problems, one of them was that we didn't have the coordinates of the crescent, but we used the coordinates of the pervious day and made some calculations to know the exact ones.

  So we tried to see the crescent, and after a while Mr. Marwan Al-Shwaiki told us where we can find the crescent, and said: You can find it here. (and pointed to a direction) and suddenly shouted... Here it is !!! It was in the same direction he pointed at. Unbelievable thing !!

  It was 18:41 (Jordanian Local Time) and we were very happy, all of us saw it by naked eyes, and after one minute we all saw it by the telescope.

  The crescent was really fantastic, and the observers were: Mohammed Murad (ICOP), Ahmed Al-Naimat (ICOP), Marwan Al-Shwaiki, Basma Diab, Khalil Konsul (President of JAS), Sydqi Arsan, Amal Al-Ghalaieni, Raid Al-Mughrabi, Arwa Yonus."

• South Africa:

  1. ICOP member, Mr. Moh'd Yusuf Martin said: "The Crescent Society would have gone for sighting and from the local reports the moon was sighted and today, Monday 17/05/99 , is the 1st of the month of Safar. I am sure this will be confirmed to you by the SA Crescent Society."

  2. ICOP member, Mr. Hashim Salie said: " The crescent moon was seen quickly after sunset relatively high up on the Western sky. All members of the Crescent Observers Society saw the crescent moon, 11 members at Three Anchor Bay, 5 members at Signal Hill and 4 members at Stellenbosch. The horizon was clear, with scattered overhead clouds. The Muslim Judicial Council accepted our testimony and declared the start (first night) of Safar 1420. We also like you to note that the observing of the waning crescent is a standard procedure for all our members, since the inception of our Society.
     

• Nigeria: ICOP member, Mr. Alabi Isiaq said: "The crescent of Safar was not sighted here (Lagos) on 16 May, hopefully by Monday 17 May." However, he added later: "The crescent was not seen at my location due to the cloudy sky. However, I gathered just yesterday Tuesday (18/05/99) from a Muslim brother that the crescent was sighted by some people on Sunday (16/05/99) evening in some part of Lagos, where the sky was clearer."

• UK: ICOP member, Dr. Monzur Ahmed said: "Careful preparations were made for the sighting. Sunset was at 21:02 local time and best time for sighting was at about 21:30. We observed from a small hill from within the city. Unfortunately there was a band of gray cumulus clouds on the western horizon. We observed with naked eye and binoculars (10x50) hoping to catch a glimpse of the crescent through a break in the cloud. Unfortunately we did not see the crescent. We observed until 21:45."

• Morocco: ICOP member, Dr. Hamid TOUMA said: "About the crescent of this month, yes I have seen it on Sunday 16 May from Rabat, at 19:50 (UT). It was a wonderful one, it has a 32 hours of life. So the first day of the islamic month in Morocco is Monday 17 May 1999."

• Canada: ICOP member, Mr. Mohammad Farooq said: " It was an excellent evening in Hamilton, Ontario for observing the crescent. The crescent was seen by the naked eye 8 minutes after the sunset at 20:37 local time at the altitude of 12.6 degrees. The crescent was far below and to the right of Venus. The azimuth was east of north at 283.0 and the Fraction Illuminated was 0.04"

Sunday 16 May:-

1. Saudi Arabia
2. Jordan
3. Palestine

Monday 17 May:-

1. Morocco
2. South Africa
3. Iran