International Astronomy warns against confusing the moon and the crescent on Tuesday

The International Astronomy Center reported that astronomical observatories in the Arabian Peninsula feared pointing the telescope at the moon on Tuesday, explaining that looking directly at the sun using a telescope or binoculars may cause permanent or temporary blindness to the observer. Therefore, directing the telescope at any body very close to the sun is a great risk that professional astronomical observatories do not take.

Director of the International Astronomy Center, Engineer Muhammad Shawkat Odeh, said: “At sunset on Tuesday, the moon will be adjacent to the sun in all regions of the Arabian Peninsula. For example, the angular distance between the sun and the moon in the city of Riyadh at sunset will be only one degree. Since this distance is measured between the centers of the sun and moon disks, this means that the crescent – assuming it exists – will be located approximately half a degree from the edge of the sun disk.

Shawkat added: “Accordingly, any telescope directed towards the position of the crescent moon at that time may have the sun within the field of view or very close to it, which exposes the devices to damage, and constitutes a real danger to the observer’s eyes that may lead to permanent loss of sight. Therefore, we warn against trying to observe the sun or any object adjacent to it on that day using a telescope or ordinary binoculars,” indicating that if the observer waits for the complete sunset of the entire sun disk to begin observing, then the edge will be The lower part of the lunar disk has naturally set, and there is no crescent to look for.

He pointed out that one of the most important legal authorities in Saudi Arabia had previously stated that the values of the crescent on Tuesday do not allow it to be seen, as the astronomer “Mulham Hindi” (researcher at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah) published a picture showing the height of the moon above the horizon in several Saudi cities, and in it he showed that the maximum height of the moon in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday will be from the Jizan region and will be about half a degree above the visible horizon, explaining that the values of the moon in all regions of the Kingdom on Tuesday are less than the limit of Ibn Taymiyyah, as Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said. Taymiyyah, may God have mercy on him, in his talk about sighting the crescent: “If it is, for example, twenty degrees away from it, then this is visible unless there is an obstacle, and if it is at one degree, then this is not visible, and as for around ten, the matter varies depending on the reasons for sighting” (Majmu’ al-Fatawa, Part 25, page 186). That is, the possibility of seeing the crescent when the moon is one degree or less above the horizon was determined by Sheikh al-Islam to mean that this crescent cannot be seen.

Shawkat explained that the object in the sky on Tuesday is the moon and not the crescent, pointing out that there is a difference between the moon and the crescent. The moon is present in the sky every day, but the crescent is one of the phases of the moon, and we are commanded to start the month relying on the crescent and not the moon, whether we see the crescent or even know of its existence at the very least. God Almighty said: “They ask you about the new moons. Say, ‘They are appointed times for the people and for the Hajj.’” For all Arab and Islamic countries, the moon on Tuesday will set before the sun in the east and with it in the center, and a few minutes after it in West Africa, and a solar eclipse will occur on investigation day, visible from South Africa and Antarctica.

Shawkat stated that the eclipse is the peak of the new moon phase, and as for the Arabian Peninsula and its environs, the moon will set shortly after the eclipse occurs, not long enough for the moon to move from the new moon phase to the crescent phase. Therefore, the moon that will set on Tuesday after the sun a minute or so is a moon in the new moon phase, not the crescent moon. The moon is not called a crescent unless it crescents for people and they see it.

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