How to Calculate Salat Times for anywhere in the World

 

The Salat times can be calculated for anywhere in the world by following the procedures outlined below in the two procedures "Obtain Sunrise/Sunset Data" and "Compute Salat Times.

 

 

 

 

Obtain Sunrise/Sunset Data

 

1. Go to the Internet web site http://aa.usno.navy.mil/.  This web site is extreamly busy and you may obtain a “TCP/IP” error, just keep trying and you will get through.

 

 

2. Once on the web site in step 1. select the "Data Services" on the following page, select “Table of Sunrise/Sunset” selection as shown in the figure below:

 

Figure 1.


 

 

 

 

3. For the United States fill out Form A.  Select the “Year”, “Type of Table”, “State or Territory” then you can type your City name in the “Place Name” box (see Figure 2).

Figure 2.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note:

If you live on the border of two states, you may want to print out both state calculations to see how far off they are, your data will be somewhere in the middle.

 

Note:

If you want to be more accurate, you can obtain the Latitude and Longitude of your city and then complete Form B (see step 3 below).

 


4. For a location outside the Unites States, fill out Form B shown in Figure 3.  You will need to know the following information to complete the form:

    • Latitude/Longitude (in Degrees/Minutes) of your City or location.
    • Your International Time Zone (E or W of Greenwich England)
      Note:  At the bottom of the form are two help locations to find your coordinates and your time zone.

 

Figure 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Once the information from Step 3 or 4 has been entered, click on the
 button to complete the computations for the Sunrise/Sunset table.

 

6. Save and print the table the form generates, this will be used throughout the year to compute the Salat times for any month.

 

 

Compute Salat Times

 

Using the table you obtained from the U.S. Naval Observatory perform the following procedures to produce your Salat Times.  Download the following file "Salat Template.pdf" to aid you in performing the following procedure.  This file is in Adobe Acrobat and you will need the Acrobat Reader to view it. The Salat Template is a preformated template to enter the Salat time data upon.

 

** If you do not already have Adobe Reader, download it from Adobe's site by clicking on the "Adobe Acrobat Reader" icon below.

 

 

I am going to show you how to calculate the Salat Times for the Month of March 2003.  To perform this for real you will need to download the correct calculations from the U.S. Naval Observatory as outlined above.

 

 

Note: 

It is very important to understand that the Sunrise/Sunset Table obtained from the U.S. Naval Observatory does not compute for Daylight Savings Times.  If you are in a region where Daylight Savings Time is used, you will have to ADD One(1) hour to the table listing to ensure that the times are correct.  This is ONLY for Daylight Savings Time when it is used.

1. Having both the Salat Template and the Sunrise/Sunset Table in front of you select the column for March as shown in Figure 4, only days 01 through 10 are shown. Please be advised that the times indicated on the following Figure were accurate for the year 2003.

Figure 4.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Under the Rise column is the time “0623”, this is the Sunrise for the first day of March 2003.  This time should be entered in the “Sunrise” column of the Salat Template.

 


3. Next, under the “Set” column is the time “1750” this is the Sunset time for the first day of March 2003.  This time should be entered in the “Sunset” column of the Salat Template.

Note:  The time “1750” is international 24-hour time and is equivalent to 5:50pm.

 

 

4. Your Salat Template should look like that shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. To calculate the “Dawn” salat time, subtract 1-Hour and 20-Minutes from the Sunrise time and enter it in the Dawn column of the template.  This time will be “0503”.

 

7. To calculate the “Middle” salat time, subtract 1-Hour and 20-Minutes from the Sunset time and enter it in the Middle column of the template.  This time will be “1630” or “4:30pm”.

 

8. To calculate the “Evening” salat time, add 1-Hour and 30-Minutes to the Sunset time and enter it in the Evening column of the template.  This time will be “1920” or “7:20pm”.  Your Template should now look like that shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Calculating the “Noon” salat time is a little more difficult.  The Noon salat time is exactly half way between the Sunrise and the Sunset times.

 

10. The amount of time between 0623 (sunrise) and 1750 (sunset) is 11 Hours and 27 Minutes.  Half of this time is added to the Sunrise time to obtain the Noon Salat time.

 

11. Half of 11 hours and 27 minutes is 5-hours and 43.5-minutes (round off to 44 minutes).

 

12. Add 5-Hours and 44-Minutes to the Sunrise time of 0623 and the Noon Salat time will be 1207 which is added to the Salat Template as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7.

 

 

 

13. Perform the same procedures to calculate the remaining days for the month.

 

 

Note: 

As a general rule (Mine Only) I round off the times to the next highest 5-minute mark.  This is only the way I do it, there is no reason other that it makes it easier for me to remember the Salat times.  It might be a good idea to add a couple of minutes to the Noon Salat time since it is the “Decline of Sun at Noon” prayer, and you want to be past the halfway mark.

 

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