The head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Eng. Majed Abu Zahra, confirmed that the sky of Makkah Al-Mukarramah will witness on Tuesday, Ramadan 23, the occurrence of the sun directly above the honorable Kaaba in a phenomenon called perpendicularity, which is the first of two this year, at 12:18 noon local time (9:18 am GMT). ) And the sun approaches the sky of Mecca outwardly, then the shadow of the honorable Kaaba disappears completely, and the shadow of noon becomes zero. Abu Zahra explained that the sun’s perpendicular phenomenon occurs as a result of the Kaaba’s location between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer. During the apparent movement of the sun across the dome of the sky, it becomes in line with the Kaaba during its transition from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer during the month of May, and when the sun returns south to the latitude. The equator coming from the Tropic of Cancer in July.
Engineer Majed Abu Zahra said: “The areas located in latitudes less than 23.5 degrees north and south all witness this event twice a year, but at different times depending on the latitude of that place, and it is characterized by a few places on the globe, which are confined between the equator and the Tropics of Cancer. And Capricorn.” Abu Zahra stressed that the phenomenon of perpendicularity is one of the ancient astronomical methods that were used to determine the direction of the qiblah in a simple way that is no less accurate than smart phone applications. And «Abu Zahra» stated that the perpendicular method can be tested to determine the direction of the qiblah for all those who live in areas far from Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the Arab countries, the regions adjacent to the Arctic, Africa, Europe, China, Russia and East Asia, for example when placing a piece of «wood» erect perpendicular to the surface of the earth At the time of perpendicularity, the opposite direction of the shadow points towards the Kaaba. The phenomenon of perpendicularity is also used to calculate the circumference of the globe without any help from modern technology, using some simple rules in geometry. The President of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah concluded that by measuring the angle of the shadow of a piece vertically embedded in the ground at the time of perpendicularity in any city, and by knowing the distance between Makkah Al-Mukarramah and that city and with a simple arithmetic operation, we will obtain the circumference of the Earth, which is an old method dating back more than 2200 years, and it indicates Also on the spherical Earth.
Ibrahim Alawi (Jeddah) @i_waleeed22
