This year, officials in Saudi Arabia announced a sighting on Monday 29 August. Since then, however, astronomers have presented evidence to show that the moon was not visible at the time, and suggested that the Saudi officials may have actually been looking at Saturn.
Maged Abou Zahra, president of the Jeddah Astronomical Society, told the Egyptian paper al-Shorouk: “The sighting of a new moon would have simply been impossible.” If true, the mistake would mean that millions of Muslims around the world stopped fasting a day too early.
When the new moon rises, it is not visible as it is completely in the shadow of the earth and astronomers claim that it usually takes around 15 hours before it is visible to the naked eye. But in Saudi Arabia barely five hours passed before authorities announced the first “moonsighting” had been made by the requisite credible and pious person.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/05/astronomers-query-ramadan-end
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