Formul for calculating Muslim prayer times.

The periods for the five prayers are eventide, or maghrib; night-tide, or isha; dawn, or fajr; noontide, or uhr; mid-afternoon, or ar. i) Eventide: Zenith +90=J until ii) Night-time: Zenith +107=J until iii) Dawn: Zenith -108=J until Sunrise Noon-90 iv) To calculate noon: Zenith=12 hours+15arc tangent [cosine Lat-cosine Lat cosine 23.44+ diff. Longitude. of meridian of Time Zone & local meridian. v) Noontide: Noon, on the Meridian, or Sun at Zenith: J=0 until vi) Mid-afternoon: Zenith + tangent J=[x+tangent [declination -L}, vii) Note: sunrise and sunset times can be modified by altitude, thus: 90+1.76[ht in metres]=J generally, one can observe sunset in real time, which holds true for the onset of dawn, the end of dusk, and noon. Cosine= [cosine J-sine sine L]/cosine cosine L, which is then converted from degrees to hours: E/15=hours, which are added to or subtracted from noon time for that day of he year and longitude. There has been confusion concerning ar, because the length of any shadow can equal the height of what casts it, this is most likely in summer in the tropics, when no noon shadow is cast, which happens on two days of any year, when declination = Lat. of that place. In winter, and in higher latitudes, the Noon shadow will be longer than E=tangent 1, which early observers in Kufa seem not to have taken into account. E= tangent 2 is what they then used. Naked eye observation of prayer times: Generally, one can observe sunset in real time. This holds true for the onset of dawn, the end of dusk, for noon and mid-afternoon, there is a method. Dawn is usually seen as light, low in the East, sometimes preceded by vertical white rays, which are pre-dawn markers. Dawn ends with lavender & mauve in the west; and dusk begins with mauve & lavender in the East. Dusk ends with the stars all out, & no light left on the horizon. Another way of looking at it is the visibility of sixth magnitude stars, which are able to be seen when the Sun is at 107 degrees or more from the Zenith. Thus, when they disappear, it is the beginning of dawn [Zenith+108]; it is the end of dusk when they reappear [Zenith-107]. These times can also be observed by means of the various groups of stars, known as manzil or the Lunar Mansions relative to the celestial latitude of the Sun. One can find Noon and Mid-afternoon, by use of a stick & a piece of string. A vertical stick or gnomon casts its shadow, which is always shortest at Noon: the method is to scribe a circle about the gnomon, and mark where the shadow of the tip crosses the circle: the bisection of these two points is the noon mark. The Mid-afternoon shadow is determined, by adding the length of the noon shadow to the same

length as the height of the gnomon, until double that of the gnomon. How to design a sundial that shows noon and mid-afternoon.

Figure 1

Aptitude Design

As seen in the southern hemisphere: the winter end of a shadow line is furthest from the Gnomon. The shadow lines are Arcs. Line: Noon, Curves: Mid-afternoon Vertical: stick or Gnomon. Tangent Zenith Distance=height+tangent [ ~lat] Cosine time= [cosine ZD-sine sine lat]/cosine lat cosine Sine azimuth=cosine sine time/sine ZD Tangent W= tangent time sine lat Radius= tangent ZD sine azimuth/sine W Method: calculate radius with value -, then as +; locate centre of arc by using the + value as the distance from the extreme points, & draw the arc that marks the shadow line for ar. Radius for ZD value + is measured from the point which lays at distance tangent lat from the gnomon vertical, where this coincides with the hour line [W] for that same value is the second point; similarly with values found for : third point; but find fourth point, or centre of arc by using longer radius. =zenith distance; =azimuth; =: declination of Sun, as defined by the ecliptic. Sine =sine sine ; =solar latitude For a vertically declining sundial, set on a wall, facing the equator, the gnomon sits horizontally on the meridian; a vertical line below it marks the onset of noontide, a further vertical, at half the height of

the first is set at arc tangent [h secant ], eastward of the first vertical. The foot of this line marks the onset of mid-afternoon; its head marks the end of that tide.
_Figure 2__Aptitude Design

A portable option is the Quadrant, powered by gravity & sunlight. Sine altitude[h] =cosine Hour Angle [t]cosine latitude cosine declination+ sine L sine D; Cosine t= [sine h- sine L sine D] secant L secant D; all arcs equal the radius of the quadrant, calculate for Declination of Ecliptic values: -D, zero, & +D, to find circumferences of the hour arcs. The arcs for ar are made by moving one & two units below the noon arc, which is half the radius of the quadrant. The unit is found by marking a small square in the angle of the Quadrant, being one unit, and where the string crosses the vertical line descending from it is the noon from which one adds the two units, while the bead on the string marks their arcs.
Figure 3 Aptitude Design