The Moon's Position, 2027-2060

These tables give the position of the new crescent at every new moon for thirty-four years, from January 2027 to December 2060: 421 new moons in all. The time of each new moon is taken from NASA, and the rest is calculated in the manner of Dr. Monzur Ahmed’s Moon Calculator (MoonCalc 6.0), using Yallop’s criterion. Each table is worked out for one place, at its own latitude and longitude and in its own local time, so choose the place nearest to you from the list of locations above.

Every file has one page for each year, January to December. For each new moon it gives the evening after it and the evening after that, and for each evening:

• NASA new moon: the day, date and time of the new moon, in local time.
• Age of the Moon: the time from the new moon to sunset. Mawlana Samiruddin Qasmi explains that the crescent is seen when it is about twenty hours old, at nineteen hours only with great difficulty, and not before.
• Altitude: how high the Moon stands at sunset. Under ten degrees it will not be seen, and these are marked in red.
• Lag time: how many minutes the Moon stays above the horizon after sunset. Under forty-five minutes it is not seen.
• Code: Yallop’s visibility rating, from A, easily seen with the naked eye, to F, not visible at all. The meaning of each letter is given in English and Urdu at the foot of every page.
• Islamic date: the date that begins at that sunset. Each month is taken to begin on the evening the crescent is rated A or B; if it is not, the month is completed at thirty days. So every month is shown as twenty-nine or thirty days, and its first day is given.

These are predictions. As each table says on its first page, the date announced locally after an actual sighting, or one that follows another country’s announcement, can differ by a day.

The tables were designed and composed by Hafiz Engineer Muhammad Tahir of Manchester, under the supervision of Mawlana Samiruddin Qasmi. Tables for fifty places are here so far, and more are being prepared. Five of them, Makkah, Tumair, Cairo, Baghdad and Dakhla, are also given entirely in Arabic, and Tumair and Makkah once more in English with their notes in Arabic rather than Urdu.

He explains how to read them in a short video: The Moon’s Position from NASA for Thirty-Four Years, 2027-2060.