Intuitive Application for Solar and Lunar(Hijri) Calendar

maninfosys2003

maninfosys2003

New Member
CrescentMoon2.bmp





Solar and Lunar(Hijri) Calendar ( Hijri Date As per Local Sighting rather than Global Sighting)


Assalaamu Alaykum (Peace be upon you)! Brothers/Sisters,
I feel really honored today, to announce a highly intuitive application, powered by Google Code; that tries to predict Hijri dates for today/future/past, totally using mathematical calculations, 99% accurate and tested against available past data.
To be frank, the purpose of this application, would never be to declare any future Hijri date with any certainty, it just helps someone to predict the probability of future special Lunar events like EID / Muharram etc, so that the person could accordingly plan for holidays!!!... We all know, that visibility of a moon, is certainly dependent of many other secondary factors ( of-course primary factor is S-M-E orientation)
Ofcourse the application, if it tells you that Today is going to be EID let's say it reads like this "EID Mubarak! 1st SHawwal(10), 1431 (Based on 111.7% Probability of Visibility of Moon on 9th Sep, 2010)[It was 10.1% Probable on 8th Sep, 2010]"
You noticed, that additionally it also mentions the probability of the event...Here probability is determined on the basis of Angle SEM ( see the picture below).
If Angle SEM is ZERO, its a NEW MOON ( Amavasya of Hindu Calendar)....
Angle SEM gradually increases with time ( rate of 12.3 degree per 24 hrs)and thereby increasing the size of the visible crescent moon, hence increasing the probability of the hilal visibility. Since Earth rotates from East to West, hence by the time Moon sets in East ( e.g. India), it almost takes 12 hrs for the Moon to reach West (e.g. USA), and that Additional 12 hrs are sometime sufficient to increase the size of the visible crescent moon to the LIMIT, when its clearly visible by the Naked Eye.
So above Concept is used to determine the Hijri date.
Other details, you would find in this short Youtube video, which will help to understand how to make much out of this application in the best and timely manner.

This is the application.:SMILY346:http://azizahcalendar.appspot.com/
:SMILY346:

I Recommend you to see this Youtube Instructions video [Solar and Lunar(Hijri / Islamic) Calendar - Instructions/Tutorial]

or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ML5aRpx4o&feature=&p=F52AE4C170979172&index=0&playnext=1



Please leave your feedback / legitimate concerns / any additional thing you want to be added to this application to [email protected] or you can Add comments in youtube videos listed above!


For testing the application against past available data, one can go to
Eid Adha http://moonsighting.com/1429zhj.html
Eid Fitra http://moonsighting.com/1429shw.html
Some key points in brief are :-

  • Datepicker used here is really fast and easier to use. However if someone wants to enter a very old date, he could type in himself (Format allowed is
    dd/mm/yyyy. considering that most Muslims use this format.

  • Date one selects, could be as low as 1 Jan 1 AD, and could be as high as 4000 AD. However any date prior to 622 AD, will not return Hijri Date


  • One can choose 1 or many City inside multi-select dropdown/Listbox (using SHIFT KEY). For speedy selection of a city, the application has divided Major World Cities
    into Continents. See this picture
    Continents.gif
    .. So if you are looking for Indian or Pakistani city, go directly to the 3rd Listbox
    on The Top, considering they are part of ASIA. To give a better symmetry, I have deliberately included Africa into the Southern hemisphere.


  • Similarly, One can choose 1 or many Choices(Lunar/Solar Columns to return) inside multi-select dropdown/Listbox (using SHIFT KEY) for speedy selection .
    The choices includes


Latitude, Longitude, Standard time zone, Qibla Direction, Sunrise Time, Solar Noon Time, Sunset Time, Lunar (Hijri) Date, Moonrise Time, Lunar Noon Time, Moonset Time, SEM Angle, Solar Altitude Noon, Sunrise Azimuth Angle, Sunset Azimuth Angle, Solar Declination Angle, Lunar declination, Duration Lunar Day

Here Latitude and Longitude is in Deg-Min` format). For Eastern countries Latitude is positive, and vice-versa for Western Countries.
Standard time zone is how many hours a particular country is ahead (STD = +ve) or behind ( STD = -ve) UTC (i.e London)

  • Sunrise Time,Solar Noon Time, Sunset Time
    are determined by incorporating Equation of Time, solar declination ,Longitude ; and difference between STD and a place's Longitude. The maximum Error in this would be 1-2 minutes from the one listed in Authentic websites..
    See here for comparison ...
    http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=212

  • Solar Altitude Noon, Sunrise Azimuth Angle, Sunset Azimuth Angle

    Same holds true for above columns. Both angles should be evident from these 2 pictures.
    Solar_altitude.gif


    Solar_AZIMUTH.gif



  • Qibla Direction     has also been added which as per testing is 99% accurate . There is No backend Database behind the application, so everything you see in the results is returned using accurate and tested formulae.
    Site for comparison
    http://www.qiblalocator.com/
    qibla-world.jpg


  • Alternate rows of results are in different color to ease readability of the results. However for special Dates ( Eid-Azha and Eid-Fitr, a different color is used)
  • x Remove button is added to the end of each returned row, which could be used to remove particular row from results.
    The results could be copied to spreadsheet without any issues.




  • Solar Declination Angle and Lunar Declination Angle
    Here Solar Declination Angle is how much the Earth is tilted towards or away from Sun. if its tilted towards Sun, it gives Longer Days/Short Nights in Norther Hemisphere, and the value is positive ( maximum is 23.5 degree)
    Here
    Lunar Declination Angle
    is a term, used by me to show how much the Earth is tilted towards or away from Moon. It has the same concepts like above....Duration Lunar Day would vary depending upon the value of Lunar Declination Angle. Average Duration Lunar Day is 12 hrs 25.2 minutes or 12.42 hrs. its basically MoonSet minus MoonRise timings


  • Lunar Noon Time and Solar Noon Time     is the time when SUN and MOON have the maximum Altitude of the Day.
    Sample output is below. here the results are taken for the Chaand-rat or hilal-sighting night.
    SampleOutput.gif

    SampleOutput2.gif


Limitations / Conclusion
· Calculations cannot be used to determine the new month (and therefore Islam insists on the actual physical hilaal sighting with or without the assistance of astronomical tools and calculations).

· Calculations can be used to reject false crescent-sightings or determine probability of chances of visibility of moon, in a particular area.

· The world being a globe, any place round the world (on the same latitude), should over time be equally likely to be the first place to sight the Hilal.· Try to choose only required # of Selectable inputs, lest the returned results are too much for your browser to bear.

·
Angle SEM used is 16.2 degrees which is considered 50% probable.

· The application returns 1st of the next month on a day, if the probability of visibility is >=50% on the previous night( i.e. if Angle SEM>=16.2 degrees during moonset on the previous night)
Different geographical regions may have their own different weather conditions, which might result in visibility of moon, if probability<50% or vice-versa. So this appln doesn’t predict with surety rather it predicts with Probability and also mention the % Probability.

· The Probability for any region close to ZERO %, could be considered as solid reasons for not seeing the moon( by permission of Allah), whereas
The Probability for any region close to 100 %, could be considered as solid reasons for seeing the moon on that night( by permission of Allah),

· It’s a Non-profitable application. Only meant to help myself and community to plan things ahead. For most it may not serve much, but for few people like me, it boosts morale and gives immense benefit in other day to day activities.

· Daylight Saving of 1 hour in Summers for North America, has not been considered currently, so you might see 1 hr difference for Summers for North America. However that difference would not impact Hijri Dates Probability .

· Most communities in US considers the visibility of moon on any part of North America, a s a criteria to confirm EID on next day. So in that case, one should look for Probability in Places on the Extreme west of the Area, where chances of the visibility of moon are the highest. ( e.g. San Francisco or Alaska for USA or coastal areas)

· Not all Cities are included in the lisboxes, becoz of limitation of time and availability of the same in desired format.

· If someone wants his region /city to be added to the Listboxes, please send me its details in below format.
Region/City, Latitude, Longitude, Standard time zone
Richmond,VA, USA, 37 Deg 33', 78 Deg 32', GMT -5

Please make dua for my family, and the entire Ummah, as well guidance for the whole Humanity towards the righteous path .

Jazakallah Khair
MA Naim
 
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