What English calendar date is the new moon, (visible in Jerusalem), nearest to the Spring equinox this year?
Anne Marie’s answer is correct. I’ll give a few additional details. Summer time begins in Israel on March 28 in 2008. The new moons near the equinox are the following. (All times here are for the Jerusalem time zone.) 2008 March 7 at 7:14 PM standard time 2008 April 6 at 6:55 AM summer time The equinox was on 2008 March 20 at 7:48 AM standard time. The question of crescent-moon visibility is an interesting one. There have been various algorithms for this. Probably the most commonly used algorithm today is one developed in 1997/1998 by B.D Yallop of the Nautical Almanac Office (United Kingdom). I’ve written software to implement Yallop’s algorithm, and have made calculations for these new moons in Jerusalem. The crescent moon was invisible on March 7 but easily visible on March 8 (provided you had a good horizon and clear sky). Here are the details for March 8 (standard time): 5:42 PM sunset 6:40 PM moonset age of moon about 22.8 hours (This would be a beautiful very thin crescent.) The
