Will Iranian space traveler Anousheh Ansari start Ramadan?

Current plans are for Soyuz TMA-9 to be launched on Sep 13 at 20:44 gmt, and
land ten days later. These dates, and the recently-added Iranian-American
space tourist Anousheh Ansari, raise an interesting question about the
Islamic calendar.

Currently, the first day of Ramadan this year is expected to be September
24, following a sighting the previous evening of the crescent new moon by
observant Moslems. But it's possible that Ansari's unique position in space
may allow her to spot the crescent a day earlier, and if she reports it
credibly, the entire Moslem world may have to start Ramadan a day earlier
than expected.

According to http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/islamic.html, "The sighting of
the lunar crescent within one day of New Moon is usually difficult. The
crescent at this time is quite thin, has a low surface brightness, and can
easily be lost in the twilight."

Actual new moon date is September 22 at 11:45 GMT, which is in the middle of
the last-but-one crew workday. But it would be many hours before anyone
could expect to visually observe the growing crescent. Could Ansari see it
before having to return to Earth the next day?

USNO: "The record for an early sighting of a lunar crescent, with a
telescope, is 12.1 hours after New Moon; for naked-eye sightings, the record
is 15.5 hours from New Moon. These are exceptional observations... " BUT
they have to vie with terrestrial twilight, which space-based observations
don't. It thus seems physically possible for an orbiting observer to detect
the new moon 12 hours after the precise moment, and quite possibly a few
hours sooner.

Twelve hours after new moon, the crescent is about 6 degrees from the sun,
and from a satellite, would set about a minute and a half after the sun --
when the western atmospheric limb is sufficiently dark for the crescent to
be seen against a black sky. That would be the middle of Ansari's last sleep
period in space -- and possibly an event worth skipping sleep over.

See also
http://webpages.charter.net/darksky2...s/May2000.html