Muslims praying at the Grand Mosque in the Saudi city of Makkah will be able to see the moon straight above them, a phenomenon that occurs once a year, newspapers in the Gulf Kingdom said on Tuesday.
The moon will appear in the sky of Makkah at around 4.39 pm on Tuesday and will continue to move until it becomes vertically above the Grand Mosque and Kaaba in the holy city at about 11.32 pm, they said.
“From that perpendicular angle, the moon will be around 370,115 km away from earth and its face will be lightened by 98.6 per cent,” the papers quoted Majid Abu Zahira, head of the Jeddah Astronomy Association, as saying.
“This phenomenon occurs once a year…Muslims at the Grand Mosque will be able to see the moon right above them tonight.”
According to Alyoum newspaper, such a phenomenon helps Muslims worldwide in locating the direction of Makkah.
“If a Muslims in any part of the world just looks straight at the moon during that phenomenon, then Makkah is in that direction.”
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