Moonsighting for Muharram 1428

Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, (MCW member) Imam of Rooty Hill Mosque, Sydney, Australia: Not Seen
The Hilaal of Muharram ul haraam 1428 has not been sighted on Friday 19th January, 2007 anywhere in Australia, therefore the moon-sighting committee of Australia and Majlis ul Ulamaa of Australia have declared that the month of Muharram ul haraam will start from Sunday, 21st January 2007.

Shabbir A. Karim (MCW member) from Singapore: Not Seen
Could not sight the moon tonight ie 19th Jan 2007 in Singapore. However the Islamic calendars here and in Malaysia show tomorrow as the 1st day of Muharram.

Hamza Rijal, (MCW member), from Island of Zanzibar, Africa: Not Seen
In a tiny island of Zanzibar we celebrate the first Muharam on Sunday 21, we have completed 30 days of Dhul Hijja.

Ahmed Mohamed, (MCW member) from Windhoek, Namibia: Not Seen
No moon was sighted in Windhoek, Namibia, on Friday 19th January 2007. We however are waiting for reports from our neighbouring countries Insha Allah.

Bankih Kacem, (MCW member) from Beni Isguen, Ghardaïa, Algeria: Not Seen
Not seen on Jan 19.

Muhammed Yasin Qamardeen (MCW member) from Iyana Ipaja, Lagos State, Nigeria: Not Seen
The Hilal of Muharam 1427 is not visible here at Lagos. At the time of submitting this report I could not ascertain the authority position on the first day of Muharam.

Rashid Motala (MCW member) from Durban, South Africa: Not Seen
The Hilaal was not sighted this evening in SA. Sunday, January 21 will be the 1st Muharram.

Dr Abdurrazak Ebrahim (MCW member) from Cape Town, S. Africa: Not Seen
The crescent was not sighted this Friday [19/01/2007] evening in Southern Africa. The 1st Muharrum 1428 AH will correspond to Sunday, 21 January 2007 as Dhul Hijjah will be of a 30-day duration.

Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti (MCW member) from Oxford, UK: Not Seen
Negative sighting. Moonsighting was attempted at the end of the 29th day of Dhu l-Hijja (Friday, 19 January 2006). Unfortunately, the horizon was overcast. We received the report from Fez, Morocco of negative sightings there despite clear skies and the authority there declared that the month of Dhu l-Hijja is to complete its 30 days. This news and the expectation that there will be no positive sightings east to our longitute on Friday are sufficient for us to complete this month like Morocco and Awwal Muharram in the UK to be on the day after tomorrow, Sunday, the 21st of January.

Javad Torabinejad (MCW member) from Blacksburg, VA: Not Seen
This evening (Friday, January 19), we were unable to sight the moon in Christiansburg, VA. We arrived at the sighting location a few minutes after sunset and using a pair of 7X50 binoculars, I started scanning the partly cloudy western horizon. This continued till actual moonset at 6:11 local time with no success.

Hadi Jaafar (MCW member), Ph.D. from Fort Collins, Colorado: Not Seen
I could not sight the moon tonight in Fort Collins. Perfectly clear skies at the western horizon. Venus was easily visible through out my sighting period.

Mohamed Lotfy (MCW member) from Aurora, Colorado: Not Seen
The crescent of Muharram for 1428 was not seen on Friday January 19th 2007 at Aurora Colorado, USA. The sky was clear but it was not seen with the naked eye.

Paul Burnham (MCW member) from Chino Valley, Arizona: Not Seen
I regret that the new moon was not sighted from Chino Valley AZ, this 19 of January. A solid overcast which later gave us light snow blocked the sky completely.

Gulamabbas A. Khakoo (MCW member) from Long Beach, California: Seen
Sighted the crescent for the month of Muharram today Jan 19th, 2007 local time 5:36pm in Long Beach CA. The top horn was almost to 1:00 o'clock and bottom horn was almost to 8:00 o'clock. It was very thin.

Dr. Youssef Ismail (MCW member), Windy Hill, San Francisco, California: Seen
This evening I have the good fortune, Al Hamdu Lillah, of reporting that the new crescent of Muharram was seen by the naked eye near Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve (37 degs 19 min N lat. 122 degs 12 min W long.). It was seen at approximately 6:01 pm at an azimuth of 237 degrees Magnetic and with an altitude of about 1 finger above a clear horizon. Clouds were higher up in the sky and prevented the moon from being seen prior to this time. Its upper limb was at about 1 o'clock and the lower limb at about 6 o'clock. Sorry I did not have time to set up the camera and get a photo.

This sighting was also confirmed with two other trustworthy and experienced sighters at a different location about 60 miles further north on Mount Tamalpais just north of San Francisco in Marin County. They saw the moon at the same time I did. The brothers Zakariyya Twist of Zaytuna Institute and Mikael Santini were the other two.

Mirza S. Basravi from Irvine, California: Seen
On January 19th, at about 5:08 PM I looked up the location of the New Moon on MoonCalc, by looking at the local view that I had earlier set up for Los Angeles. Then I went outside our house (in Irvine, Ca.), with my 7 X 35 binoculars to look for the new moon. After about 10 to 15 minutes of search I was able to see the crescent with my binoculars, at about 5:35 PM, through the haze, just above the houses and trees to the west, at least three degrees above the horizon. I quickly called my wife and asked her to confirm the sighting (through the binoculars). The crescent was observed straight down from the planet Venus and perhaps 2 degrees to the right. The glare was still pretty strong and we could not see the moon without the binocular. We were no longer able to observe the moon after 5:45 PM since it had gone down behind he houses and trees.

K.A.M.Azizul (MCW member) Huq from Dhaka, Bangladesh: Seen
On Saturday, January 20, 2007 at 6.00 pm local time I reached the top of 14 storied building and within a short time, the Crescent Moon of Moharrum ,1428 was spotted below the glowing star in darkish sky with the help of binoculars. It remained on sky up to 6.15 pm and found gradually faded from white to red colour. Then it went out of sight.

Shahid Iqbal (MCW member) from Swabi, Pakistan: Seen
Tonight, on Jan 20, Moharram moon was easily sighted with naked eye, here in Swabi, Pakistan at local sunset. First of Moharram 1428 Hijri falls on Sunday, 21 January, 2007, and Ashoora-e-Moharram will be on Tuesday, 30 January, 2007. However, there are clear chances of a 28 days Moharram in countries with bad weather and sighting restricted to boundaries in Asia, Middle East, Europe, North Africa. This is an indicator of need for a unified global lunar calendar without boundaries.

Hussain Khushaish (MCW member) from Kuwait: Seen
In Kuwait on Sat 20 Jan 2007 I could sight the crescent first with 20*60 binocular at 17:07 then with naked eyes at 17:14. Our local sunset was at 17:16. Venus was seen easier than the crescent and it was 2 degrees directly above it.