Itera Amati Hilal With The OZT ALTS Robotic Telescope

Illustration - The OZT-ALTS Telescope to be used by the Itera Lampung Astronomy Observatory Center (OAIL) to observe the hilal. (ANTARA/HO-ITERA)

The LAMPUNG BANDAR - Center for the Itera Lampung Astronomy Observatory (OAIL) will observe the hilal Ramadan in 1445 Hijri on Sunday (10/3) at the Itra MKG Equipment Park Moon Observer Station (OZT-ALTS) complex, using an advanced robotic telescope called OZT ALTS.

"OAL has been carrying out hilal observations since 2017 and has become one of the hilal observation centers in Indonesia and is always committed to continuing to serve public requests regarding hilal observations in Itera," said Head of OAIL Itera Center Dr. Moedji Raharto as quoted by ANTARA, Saturday, March 9.

In this hilal observation, Itera will use the OZT-ALTS Telescope, which is a robotic telescope assisted by the Government of Saudi Arabia, to Itera and officially used since 2021.

"The telescope is used as an international lunar observation center and there are only 14 in the world, and one of them is on the Itera campus," he said.

The OZT- ALTS telescope is equipped with an apochromatic triplet reflector with a diameter of 152 mm with a focus length of 1200 mm and a high-speed monochrome CCD camera detector with an infrared filter, and a colored CMOS camera.

"In addition to using the OZT-ALTS telescope, OAIL also provides 3 portable barrier optics A-102 telescopes (diameter 102 mm, focus 900 mm) for use by activity participants during the hilal observation process," he said.

For the purposes of hilal research, OAIL Itera also made closed observations on the Rooftop of Labtek OZT by using a portable hilal telescope for development from OAIL (OjanScope and Utopia-Scope).

"The early disappearance of the Hijri month was marked by the appearance (or countable) of the moon of a young (hilal) sickle at the time of sunset on the 29th of the Hijri month. If on the 29th it is not observed hilal or countably impossible to observe, then the date of the Hijri month will be completed to 30 days," he said. silence

According to him, by using the OZT-ALTS location point, the OAL team calculated that the toposentrik conjunction occurred on March 10, 2024, at 17.30 WIB, at sunset in Itera at 18:15 WIB where the moon would be in the western horizon with a age of 0 hours 45 minutes.

"From the calculations carried out by the OAIL team, the height of the moon at the time of sunset was +00 deg:01':47" and the lunar azimut of +264 deg:49':16", with different azimuthals -01 deg:14':24" from the location of the sunset, with an elongation of +01 deg:42':19," he said.

Therefore, it is possible that the hilal determination of the beginning of Ramadahan this time will be very difficult to observe, and under the criterion of the visibility of the Neo MABIMS hilal (month height of 3 degrees, elongation of 6.4 degrees).

"Even so, OAL continues to make observations to confirm whether the hilal can be seen or not," he said. Dr. Moedji Raharto.

With the height of the hilal low and below the criteria for the visibility of the hilal, there may be a sizeable initial difference in Ramadan.

"However, the results of observations carried out by OAL, whether the hilal can be seen or not, will be reported to the Ministry of Religion for use as consideration for the determination of the beginning of the month of Ramadan 1445 through an isbat session," he said.

OAIL will open hilal observations to the public, and for people interested in attending, they are welcome to fill out a registration form in bit.ly/hilal-ramadhan-1445h-itera to register.