Happy New Year

It may be February 1st for most of us, but here in Oman it is also the beginning of the New Year. New Year was called on January 31st. Since the Sultanate of Oman is a Muslim country, it follows a lunar calendar. Thus, the year is a little shorter than the regular calendar. Also, this fact makes the holidays change significantly (always earlier) from year to year. I really enjoy watching the night sky and so I appreciate how the importance given towards the phases of the moon makes astronomy more prevalent in everyday life.

However, the way a holiday is called here is almost silly. The government has, in fact, a special observer who will “make the call” when the crescent of the new moon shows itself (by the way this is why so many Islamic countries have a crescent in their flags). The event usually happens right at sundown and as the moon shows itself for only a few minutes. Anyway for any holiday that is religious, Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, the New Year, etc. you sort of wait and talk with people about what day may be called. It is sort of like talking about the weather in Minnesota. I hate to show my bias, but with all of our advancements in celestial physics, I think they should be able to predict when the crescent will rise. The other day I found a web site that could show you the night sky 4,000 years ago, but we do not know when the crescent may show.

I want to also enclose a few pictures of a place we recently took a day trip to. The place we visited a few weeks back is called Bander Khayran. It is a very interesting area. Here is a spot where the Eastern Jebels drop right into the ocean. The result is spectacular scenery with a lot of bays, coves and inlets. Many people take boats to some of the more remote beaches, but we drove and then walked a little way. However, we still spent the entire day by ourselves on a sandy beach looking out onto the placid waters. I was going to snorkel but landed on a pretty painful Jelly Fish. The sting raised my skin for several hours. Anyway, I decided to fly a kite instead.