Dubai: UAE residents will be fasting a difference of 41 minutes between the first and last days of Ramadan, revealed a Sharjah-based leading astronomer.
Ibrahim Al Jarwan, member of the Arab Federation for Space and Astronomy, confirmed that residents will fast for 14 hours and 57 minutes on the last day of Ramadan, with a slight difference between various regions of the country. On the first day of Ramadan, which fell on April 24, Muslims in the UAE had to fast for 14 hours and 16 minutes.
To calculate the difference in timings for each emirate, add an extra four minutes for Abu Dhabi. Four minutes are deducted for Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain, one minute for Sharjah and Ajman, and six minutes for Fujairah.
“Sunset and sunrise times vary with altitude. So the timings of sunset is longer based by the higher the altitude,” said Al Jarwan. “This same principle applies to people who are living in high skyscrapers, who are the first to see the sunrise and the last to receive the sunset. So the fast of people in such types of high buildings will be delayed by a few minutes.”
Approximately, the sun sets one minute later for around every 1.5 kilometres gained in altitude.
“In the UAE, the iftar time between latitudes is only by a few minutes. But in high skyscrapers, you can calculate the time for sunset as a minute for the first 300 metres, and then two minutes for apartments located up to 550 metres high,” he said.
Al Jarwan explained that during the month of Ramadan, which falls from mid-April to mid-May this year, the temperature is expected to reach up to 39 degrees Celsius with lows of 21 degrees Celsius. The level of humidity will be not an extreme one, and will fall between 18 and 76 per cent, with a slight chance of rainfall.
“The most important astronomical phenomena to witness during Ramadan is the magnificence of three bright planets over the eastern horizon at dawn, namely Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter,” he added.
Meanwhile, planet Venus will also be dazzling brighter than usual around the world, in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as the evening ‘star’ can be spotted by late April and into early May.
