moonsighting.com
Moonsighting.com is an independent Islamic astronomy website that explains crescent visibility, records moon reports, and helps Muslims understand Hijri calendar dates.
What is Moonsighting.com used for?
Moonsighting.com helps people study when the first thin crescent may appear after sunset.
This crescent, called the hilal, can mark the start of a new Islamic month.
The timing matters most before Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, and the Hajj season.
The site combines astronomy with reports from people who look for the moon in many countries.
This mix is useful because a moon can exist in the sky but still be too low, too thin, or too close to the Sun to see.
Who created Moonsighting.com?
The website was founded by Khalid Shaukat, whom the site describes as a scientist, engineer, and astronomer.
His work tries to connect modern calculations with Islamic rules about the lunar calendar.
The site says its reported sightings have matched its predicted visibility curves consistently since 1993.
Its long history gives researchers access to records from many past Islamic months.
However, Moonsighting.com is an independent resource, not one global religious authority.
A mosque, government, or Islamic council may follow a different rule when setting an official date.
What information can you find on the website?
The main resource is a large collection of monthly moonsighting reports.
Each month can include the conjunction time, expected visibility areas, observation results, observer locations, weather notes, and the tool used to see the moon.
Some reports clearly separate a naked-eye sighting from one made with binoculars or a telescope.
This detail matters because Islamic scholars do not all agree on whether an aided sighting has the same status as a naked-eye sighting.
The site also provides crescent visibility maps for every Hijri month across many future years.
These maps show where the moon may be impossible to see, hard to see, or easy to see after local sunset.
A separate country page compares the different rules used around the world, including local sighting, official state announcements, and calculated calendars.
How does the website predict crescent visibility?
The website does not treat the astronomical new moon as a visible crescent.
The astronomical new moon is the conjunction, when the Sun and Moon share nearly the same direction from Earth.
A visible crescent normally comes later, after the Moon moves far enough from the Sun and remains high enough above the horizon.
Moonsighting.com discusses factors such as angular distance from the Sun, height above the horizon, moonset time, and the age of the Moon.
Its moon-sighting FAQ explains that one calculation-based standard uses at least eight degrees of separation and five degrees of height somewhere on Earth at sunset.
The site also explains why actual sightings can differ across places because sunset comes at different times and viewing conditions change.
This makes its maps best understood as forecasts of possibility, not promises that someone will see the crescent.
Does Moonsighting.com offer other Islamic tools?
The website includes a prayer timetable calculator that uses latitude, longitude, time zone, year, and legal method.
Its map can also show the Qibla direction from a chosen location.
The prayer-time method is unusual because it does not use one fixed solar angle for every place and season.
The site says it studied dawn and evening twilight observations from several countries for about ten years.
Its calculation guide says Fajr and Isha can change with latitude and season, especially in northern regions with very short summer nights.
This part of the site is valuable for study, but users should still compare its results with a trusted local mosque.
What are the website’s strongest and weakest points?
The greatest strength is the connection between a scientific forecast and a real report from the ground.
A user can see what astronomy predicted and then check whether observers saw the moon, failed to see it, or faced clouds.
This record also helps expose reports that conflict with basic facts, such as claims made before conjunction or after the Moon had already set.
The main weakness is the old and crowded design.
Pages contain dense links, short month codes, small maps, and records from many years, so a new visitor may struggle to find the current month.
Some pages also display old update dates or unfinished report fields, which means readers must check the year carefully.
Moonsighting.com is therefore best used as a deep reference and learning tool, while the final religious date should come from the authority that a person or community has chosen to follow.