Tutong – April 19, 2015. Almost despaired by the weather as the western sky was partly cloudy  when seeking the young moon at Bukit Agok this evening.  The sun set behind the real horizon of which very much assisting our telescope alignment and had given us hope indicating  for a clear hazy patch in the sky. Sunspots were visibled through a 100mm f/6 refractor attached with a solar filter when the scope slewed at the sun.

After sunset, at 1827, the scope was pointed to the Moon revealing its location which was behind thick clouds. However, there was some opening in clouds about 1 to 3 degrees just nearly above the horizon,

At 1852 or 25 minutes after local sunset, the scope was pointing to the cloudless area, very low  in the west horizon.  At that instance, the super-thin young lunar crescent of Rejab 1436H was firstly appeared through the telescope. Even so, with optical aid,  the Hilal (crescent) was hardly seen to the eyes as it was washed out by the twilight. Not until 4 minutes after that, the crescent was visible to the naked eyes through the viewfinder.

The new Moon sighting was conducted by Ustaz Saifulbahri and Hazarry of the Astronomical Society of Brunei Darussalam. This afternoon’s sighthing was a new record set for the youngest Moon with age of 15.8 hours old  ever seen with optical aid in Brunei. Previous record was a 19 hours old observed in November 2004 (here).
 

New moon data:

Awal bulan (7) Rejab 1436 :

Ijtimak awal Rejab : …
19 April 2015, jam 2j 59m 20s (GMT: 8)
Lokasi : Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei