It was March 1989 when my younger brother Zaki was born. Fifteen days later we had Ramazan in Pakistan.
Nostalgic, eh? Perhaps this shot makes you think: “Boy, those were the days; the lunar crescents of Ramazan and the Eids used to be so thin in Pakistan and the hunt for them so exciting …”
Fast forward twenty years to 2009. The Eid crescent looked like this:
by Shahbaz Khan Durrani
Next year (2010), the Ramazan crescent looked like this from Karachi, Pakistan:
The Moon was just 5° above the horizon. Photo by Ahsan Abidi.
Eid’s crescent was seen on 10th September 2010:
Many of us probably wonder if the “fat” crescents of Ramazan and the Eids that we now see in Pakistan are a conspiracy. If you are one of them, be assured that this is no conspiracy! It is astronomy at work. How this happens is explained in the layman’s terms here: link.
The first Eid crescent that I remember having seen was sometime in 1993~1995. It was such a delicate wisp that I was able to locate it only after my mother repeatedly pointed it out for us siblings. Besides its slenderness, another thing that was etched in my young mind was that the crescent was “balanced” and not tilted. Ramazan and the Eids used to fall sometime in December to April in the 1990s. The lunar crescent in these solar months, as seen from Pakistan and similar latitudes (southern Florida, for example) is either “balanced” or tilted just slightly. That is why Ramazan and Eid crescents used to be thin. Even now during these solar months, the lunar crescents are just like they have always been – slender and balanced. For example, this is how the Moon of Safar 1432AH (5th January 2011) was – Ebrahim, Faraz, Ramiz and I saw it from Karachi.
by Dr. Muhammad Yaqub
Similarly, the crescent of Rabi-ul-Awwal 1433AH (24th January 2012) would Insha Allah be slender as seen from Pakistan:
Since the last couple of years and for the next few ones as well, Ramazan, Shawwal and Zilhaj happen between October and July. As seen from our latitude, the lunar crescent is tilted steeply from July to October. This is why we see fat crescents in recent Ramazans and Eids. The crescent of Ramazan 1432 will be highly inclined and about 44 hours old when it becomes visible in Pakistan, so it too will be fat. Period.
This trend of fat crescents from Pakistan will probably continue for another six to nine years. After that Ramazan shall come in April and earlier, and we shall see the slender “Eid ka Chand” again. But what if someone just can’t wait to see those hair-line thin crescents of Eid again? He or she should relocate to the southern hemisphere, say, to Australia, Mozambique or South Africa!
1.1% lit, 22.5 hours past new Sha’ban 1432AH Crescent captured from Brisbane, Australia by Tom Harradine
When the Moon is steeply inclined for us in Pakistan, it is nearly horizontal for observers in the southern hemisphere. This is why the Sha’ban 1432AH crescent in the above video made on 2nd July 2011 is so thin. From Pakistan, the crescent was quite tilted and the weather wasn’t good either. Our guys tried without luck to see the crescent from Khuzdar, Karachi and Sukheki; other observers hunted from elsewhere but the Moon was not seen from anywhere in Pakistan on that date.