Lunar calendars & the Moonsighters Academy
The Moonsighters Academy is a public engagement project enabled by a UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Spark award.
This year-long engagement project builds on the PhD research and activities of Imad Ahmed (Faculty of Divinity), with additional input from astronomers at the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds.
Background: Imad Ahmed’s specialism
“How do different generations of Muslims understand what it means to be a Muslim in the UK? Can we talk about a British Muslim experience? If so, with what generation does it start? What kinds of everyday religious expressions bind British Muslims to each other and make them different from non-British Muslims? What do the experiences of British Muslims across the generations reveal about the relationship between migration and localization, especially with regard to diverse religious communities who come together and form distinct minority groups within society?”
Those were the questions used to advertise PhD funding when Imad Ahmed successfully applied. Funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership (AHRC), he studies the different ways in which British Muslims relate to competing lunar calendars and the impact on their daily lives, supervised by Professor Esra Özyürek (Faculty of Divinity).
Before commencing his PhD in 2022, Ahmed spent 8 years in the education sector, and 5 years as a community organiser for civic and political organisations. A qualified Secondary School teacher, he also worked as a PGCE Teacher Trainer for Teach First via the University of London Institute of Education. Ahmed holds a longstanding partnership with the Royal Observatory Greenwich, where he co-delivers the Astronomy and Islam programme (selling more than 11,000 planetarium show tickets).
A Muslim Astronomy influencer, Ahmed runs the New Crescent Society social media pages (50k+ followers), celebrating the relationship between faith and astronomy. He has created Islamic astronomy programmes for the National History Museum, Stonehenge, City Hall, and the National Space Centre, and appeared in documentaries on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and on the Islam Channel. He is a judge for the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year Award.
How does this research translate into a rationale and intentions for a collaborative astronomy course?
The Islamic calendar is a lunar visibility calendar, meaning each month begins with the sighting of the new crescent Moon. As the crescent Moon is sighted in different regions of the world on different dates, Islamic dates differ between countries. For example, Saudi Arabia may start a month on Saturday, but Morocco may start the same month a day later on Sunday, or even Monday.
In the UK, however, there is no local Islamic calendar. Due to a lack of resources and expertise, the UK Muslim community has never been able to set up trained lunar observation groups for their own national lunar calendar. Instead, the vast majority of UK mosques have outsourced their calendar to different countries. Imad Ahmed’s PhD research has shown that the lunar observations of at least six different countries are followed by various Muslim communities in the UK. Not a single mosque in the UK today follows local lunar observations, nor do they usually have the expertise to do so. Nevertheless, Ahmed’s research shows there is a strong demand to develop this expertise.
The absence of a unified, local calendar in the UK has caused considerable friction with the community. As UK mosques follow different countries, different mosques celebrate festival days on different dates. Even in our own town of Cambridge this year, the Muslim community could not agree on which date to celebrate Eid, dividing the community over two dates. These debates are further exacerbated by misinformation and misunderstanding about the basic principles of astronomy involved.
Ahmed has found that over 95% of imams interviewed lack basic knowledge of the lunar orbit, how to sight the moon, or the ability to explain why Eid dates split communities. These debates are often highly polarising, with incidents recorded by Ahmed of imams being sacked, physical altercations in mosques, and families refusing to celebrate Eid together.
The Moonsighters Academy seeks to address this problem by “bringing the Moon back home.” The initiative aims to build a network of public engagement leaders and lunar observation groups across the UK, empowering British Muslims to manage their own calendar rather than outsourcing it to various countries abroad.
The initiative not only seeks to resolve the practical issue of the Islamic calendar but also aims to inspire greater interest in astronomy within British Muslim communities. By fostering scientific literacy and empowering community leaders, the Moonsighters Academy offers a unique model for how STFC public engagement can address specific community needs while promoting the value of science and technology.
Visit the Moonsighters Academy homepage to learn more about the course (in Study with us) and intended outcomes.
Changing month by the Moon—introducing Imad's research in cam.ac.uk/stories
Seeing the Ramadan moon—an interfaith.cam.ac.uk perspective on Imad’s activities
UK moon sighting course could spell end of ‘moon wars’ (via HyphenOnline.com, November 2025)
Learn about the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership (oocdtp.ac.uk).
The Moonsighters Academy is organised in partnership with:
The background research is supported by:
