The date of birth of the crescent of Shawwal 1444 - Eid al-Fitr - and the possibility of seeing it in the Arab countries

Muslims in most parts of the world unite on the date of the beginning of the month of Ramadan for this year 1444/2023, and this is something that has not happened for years, so fasting began on Thursday, March 23, 2023, and in the following article we review the possibilities of observing and investigating the crescent of Shawwal and the beginning of Eid Al-Fitr, and will the month of Ramadan complete 30 One day or it will be only 29 days.

The date of birth of the crescent of Shawwal 1444 and the possibility of sighting

The central conjunction of the crescent of the month of Shawwal 1444 AH will occur on Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 4:12 in the morning, which is the day of investigation in all Islamic countries that fasted on Thursday, and this for those who rely on astronomical calculations is sufficient for the next day to be the beginning of the new month without paying attention. To the possibility of visibility, and at sunset it will have been about 12 hours since the birth of the crescent, and its stay in the sky after sunset is about 27 minutes in relation to the coordinates of the capital, Amman, where the sun sets at 19:09 and the moon is 19:36, as we can see in the attached picture.

The possibility of observing these numbers may be possible with advanced telescopes and with modern technologies such as (ccd) a special camera for the direction to the west, and the matter remains dependent on the weather condition as well and the clarity on the horizon and the legal opinion by adopting this technology in proving the entry of the month, so the possibility of observing the crescent for the month of Shawwal and the beginning of Eid Mushrooms will be as follows:

1. In Islamic countries that require monitoring with the naked eye, the date of Eid al-Fitr and the beginning of the month of Shawwal will be on Saturday, April 22, 2023.
2. In countries that adopt astronomical calculations without paying attention to the possibility of sighting, the date of Eid al-Fitr and the beginning of the month of Shawwal will be on Friday, April 21, 2023.
3. North American countries, and since we are ahead of them at night, there will be the possibility of seeing the crescent on the day of observation, Thursday, April 20, 2023, and therefore it is expected that it will be observed with the naked eye, and the date of Eid Al-Fitr and the beginning of the month of Shawwal will be on Friday, April 21, 2023.
4. Maghreb countries There may be a possibility of telescope vision and in monitoring conditions depending on the weather, and the decision remains for the jurisprudence councils that adopt vision with the naked eye or the telescope, and Morocco is an example where the moon is monitored with the naked eye in several regions of the country.

According to the International Astronomy Center and the user's return criterion in analyzing the possibility of seeing the crescent, this image summarizes the words we mentioned earlier on the day of the investigation, Thursday, April 20.