There is always something happening in the sky. Next day’s coming up, not only in Oman, but in the whole Muslim world, the moon is focused. High-tech instruments will be in search of the Ramadan moon.
Although the date of 27th of May is already fixed by astronomy on the calendars, only when the crescent moon is visible by the naked eye, Ramadan will be announced.
During Ramadan the sky is also lighted up. In December 2014, scientists using a NASA-NOAA satellite announced that they had detected significant changes in the amount and distribution of nighttime lighting during holiday seasons in the Middle East and North America. For instance, nighttime lights in some Middle East cities were 50 to 100 percent brighter during the holy month of Ramadan. The change made sense because Muslims fast during daylight in Ramadan, pushing meals, social gatherings, commerce and other activities into nighttime hours. To confirm that the nighttime signal was not merely an instrument artifact, the team examined all of the nighttime data from spring 2012 through autumn 2014. They found that the peaks in light use closely tracked the Islamic calendar.
This year with the ‘Ramadan Kareem’ month ahead the same will happen again.
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