Crescent New Moon Sightings
February 2000
This page contains reports of actual New Moon sightings from Israel and is updated every month. The Biblical month begins with the Crescent New Moon, or First Visible Sliver, seen from Israel.
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New Moon Report
On Sunday February 6, 2000 the New Moon was NOT sighted by observers from Jerusalem, Ashdod and elsewhere. There was total cloud coverage in Jerusalem and heavy cloud coverage in other locations. Magdi Shamuel located the moon for about 2 minutes from Ashdod in a gap in the cloud through 20x60 BINOCULARS, but the moon disappeared BEFORE he was able to locate it with the NAKED EYE. Binoucular sightings can not be used to determine Rosh Hodesh (New Moon Day). Using modern optical aides, the moon can almost always be located (even close to conjunction!). The New Moon (Hodesh) referred to in the Hebrew Bible is the moon which reappears to the naked eye after several days of concealment, not that which remains constantly visible to sophisticated telescopes. Note that the moon had an illumination at sunset of 1.22% and a lagtime of 54 minutes. At this stage of New Moon research, visibility would not have been certain, even under ideal weather conditions. Nehemia Gordon New Moon Report
On Monday February 7, 2000 the Moon was sighted by Nehemia Gordon and Devorah Gordon from Jerusalem. The moon was first sighted by Nehemia at 17:09. Sunset was observed 4 minutes later at 17:13. There were no clouds and visibility conditions were excellent. Nehemia Gordon To subscribe to Karaite Korner Newsletter, send a blank email to: karaite_korner_news-subscribe@onelist.com To UNsubscribe from Karaite Korner Newsletter, send a blank email to: karaite_korner_news-unsubscribe@onelist.com |
Copyright © 1998-2000 by Nehemia Gordon and Devorah Gordon, All Rights Reserved.Last Updated Apr 11, 2000