Hilal Sky: Moon Sighting

Hilal Sky is a moon sighting app. It shows whether the new crescent moon (hilal) can be seen from where you are tonight, and where to look.

It never decides the date. Your authority does that, and Hilal Sky shows the sky next to what they announce.

Open it after sunset and you see your own western sky, drawn live: the colour follows the Sun's real depth below the horizon, and the crescent sits at its true place, shape and tilt. Drag along the evening to go from sunset to moonset and watch it sink into the glow.

What it tells you:
• Tonight's verdict: easy by eye, look with binoculars first, or not possible. It uses Odeh's published criterion, at the best time to look by Yallop's method.
• The crescent's height, direction and the minutes it stays up after sunset.
• Nights when the Moon sets before the Sun, said plainly, with the minutes.
• Today's Hijri date (Islamic calendar), in your language.
• When next month likely starts, as each authority would announce it, with its record: useful at Ramadan and Eid.
• The World view: a globe showing where the crescent can be seen on the next crescent evening.
• "I saw it": keep your own book of sightings.

Beside your authority, never instead of it. Hilal Sky shows the astronomy. The start of a month is decided by the authority you follow, such as the Umm al-Qura calendar, Pakistan's Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Kemenag or Diyanet. Hilal Sky shows a prediction of their decision next to the sky, with each authority's track record; it never rules on a date.

In Arabic, Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish, Malay and English, with Arabic and Urdu right to left.

Private by design. Hilal Sky has no accounts and no ads. The only thing it sends us is anonymous counts of how far people get in the app, so we can fix where they get stuck, and you can turn them off in Settings. All the astronomy runs on your phone and works offline. If you allow location, it's used only to draw your horizon, and the app never sends it anywhere. You can pick a city instead.

Hilal Sky is free. Tips are optional, and a tip changes nothing in the app.

Sun and Moon positions come from Astronomy Engine. City names come from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).

Recent changes:
Hilal Sky now counts, anonymously, how far people get in the app, so we can fix where they get stuck. It sends no ID, nothing about you and not your location. You can turn it off in Settings, "Share anonymous counts". If you already had the app, or your phone is set to an EU or EEA country or time zone, it asks you first and counts nothing unless you say yes.