Ramadan 1432 Begins!
Ramadan Light
Well it was a long night. Reports came in from many locations and they needed to be tracked down and confirmed. Reports came in from as far away as South Africa, and several locations in the Caribbean and South America.
Here in the States, the best location astronomically was in San Diego, which by the way suffered like we did in the Bay Area with cloudy or foggy skies.
Fortunately there were two separate sighting groups in south Texas that helped us confirm the beginning of Ramadan this year. In one case there was a group of 16 individuals that saw the moon initially with binoculars and then of the 16, 3 were able to see it again with the naked eye. In the second case we had four individuals that saw the new crescent with their naked eyes alone, not far from the the other group but completely independent.
Here in the Bay Area, the day played out nicely. Fog in the morning that burned off by mid morning and mild temperatuers and clear skies for the remainder of the day…that is until the temperature started to drop.
We headed out with a group of nearly 40 adult individuals and counting the children we had to number well in to the 60’s. We headed up to Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve hoping for clear skies there, but as we neared, the fog started to climb up from the coast and covered us over. The marine layer had to be nearly 2700 feet thick!
The above photo shows the full extent of the light we saw on Borel Hill, the highest hilltop in the Bay Area’s Peninsula region.
Nonetheless, we managed to get the sighting confirmations we needed to mark the start of Ramadan. To all my Muslim readers, Ramadan Mubarak.
Peace.
