What is the relevance of Sunset in crescent sighting?
In the first sixty hours or so after The Astronomical New Moon, the sunlight reflected by the moon is so weak that the crescent cannot be observed while the Sun is in the sky. Generally, for sighting the new crescent, one should start to search the sky about 15 minutes after sunset. One should look in the direction of the setting sun, just above, or up to 30 degrees to the right, or 30 degrees to the left of where the Sun set. One should keep looking until the time of moonset that can be obtained from local newspapers. Binoculars do help.
