The Islamic science research network UHAMKA’s moon crescent observation system

Abstract

In Indonesia, most of the people are still doing the observation hilal to determine the beginning of the month of Hijrah. Among twelve months of Hijrah, the most crucial hilal observation is when determining the beginning of Ramadhan, Syawal and Zulhijah month. In that three months, there are some religious rituals; those are fasting in Ramadhan, Idul Fitri at the beginning of Syawal, Arafah fasting and Idul Adha in Zulhijah month. Hilal observation is astronomy observation that can be done by using some technologies; those are a digital camera, telescope, and mounting. The Islamic Science Research Network (ISRN) UHAMKA develops telescope system to hilal observation consist of William Optics Zenith Star 71ED telescope, CCD Celestron Skyris 274M camera, Baader infrared filter, mounting iOptron CEM60, and sharcap application to control camera which have loaded function of image capture, image correction, and image stacking.