[tz] Timezones Morocco 2013 incorrect

[Patrice Scattolin]

Here's Her Majesty's Nautical Alamanac Office's opinion on the matter: 
http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/moonwatch/background.html
and they point to Yallop's work here 
http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/download/NAOTN69.pdf and provide a handy 
calculator here 
http://astro.ukho.gov.uk/surfbin/placefinder.cgi?program=Moon_Viz&ticket=89fe040c51378d89. 
I think these visibility forecasts would be as authoritative as you can 
expect to get. Presumably one could try to validate the rules against 
these forecasts.

But you are right, it's a different matter if the forecast will prove 
useful for one timezone or another.

You can try some in Stellarium to see how hard some of those first moon 
sighting observations they are.


On 06/03/2013 11:52 AM, Tim Thornton wrote:
> This site appears to have useful information on which countries use
> calculated or observed sightings: http://moonsighting.com/methods.html
> This whole subject is a big can of worms, and Yallop's method is just an
> approximation and not accepted by all Muslims.
> Tim
>
>
>
> Smartcom Software Ltd
> Portsmouth Technopole
> Kingston Crescent
> Portsmouth PO2 8FA
> United Kingdom
>
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tz-bounces at iana.org [mailto:tz-bounces at iana.org] On Behalf Of Brian
> Inglis
> Sent: 05 March 2013 15:09
> To: tz at iana.org
> Subject: Re: [tz] Timezones Morocco 2013 incorrect
>
> On 2013-03-04 02:18, Paul Eggert wrote:
>> On 03/04/2013 12:52 AM, Erik Homoet wrote:
>>> An official link for the announcement for this year I cannot find on
>>> official local websites but on all timezone and worldtime websites
>>> and airlines booking engines are using it.
>> Thanks.  Last year it looks like the official announcement by the Head
>> of Government of the Kingdom of Morocco wasn't until July 11 (for July
>> 20 and August 20 transitions), so if we wait for something official
>> it'll be uncomfortably close to the actual event.  Here's last year's
>> announcement (in French):
>>
>> http://www.mmsp.gov.ma/fr/actualites.aspx?id=288
>>
>> I'm thinking of using the GNU Emacs predictions for Ramadan for
>> 2013-2037, whatever they are, and slapping them into the Morocco table
>> by hand, as predictions.  Any better suggestions are welcome.
> GNU Emacs predictions may be usable if they take the location dependent
> visibility of the new moon crescent into account (see references to Yallop's
> method) but if this becomes more widespread, it may be better to develop (or
> borrow) a script that will predict the start and end of Ramadan for any tz
> location.
>