Chandra Darshan is the sighting of the first thin crescent after the new moon, low in the west just after sunset. Unlike the other monthly observances on this site it is not settled by a tithi lookup: it is an act of seeing, and whether the crescent can be seen at all depends on how long the Moon lingers above the horizon after the Sun has gone. This page therefore lists EVERY candidate evening of each lunar month - each evening on which a Shukla Pratipada or a Shukla Dwitiya is running at your city's sunset, which is usually two and sometimes one - with the sunset, the moonset and the interval between them, and it names no single date, because no text this site cites supplies a test for when a young crescent becomes visible.
At the moment of new moon the Sun and the Moon share the same longitude, so the Moon sets with the Sun and nothing can be seen. Each day after that the Moon falls about twelve to thirteen degrees further east, which means it sets progressively later than the Sun and stands progressively higher in the darkening sky.
The single number that captures this is the interval between sunset and moonset - how long the Moon remains above the horizon once the Sun has gone. A short interval means a very thin crescent very low in the residual glare, and it may not be seen at all; a longer one means a higher and thicker crescent against a darker sky. That interval is computed here for each candidate evening at your city, from the true positions of the Sun and Moon to sub-arcsecond precision.
This site's standing rule is that where the sources disagree, both readings are rendered rather than one being silently chosen. Chandra Darshan is a case where the sources do not merely disagree - they do not address the question in computational terms at all.
Kane, History of Dharmasastra V.i p.72, does settle the tithi: among the exceptions to the general pairing rule he names, Shukla Pratipada is taken purvaviddha, joined with the Amavasya before it. But that fixes which civil day carries the Pratipada. It says nothing about whether the crescent is visible on that day's evening, which is a question about the sky rather than about the almanac. Almanacs in practice differ, some printing the Pratipada evening and some the Dwitiya. Every candidate evening is given here, and none of them is marked as the answer.
An evening is listed when a Shukla Pratipada or a Shukla Dwitiya is running at that day's SUNSET. That is the anchor the observance asks for, and it is not the same as the tithi at sunrise: where the Amavasya ends between sunrise and sunset the almanac's sunrise reading is still Amavasya while the evening already belongs to the Pratipada. A lunar month usually yields two such evenings. It yields one when a tithi passes wholly between two sunsets, and occasionally three when one of them holds two.
The evenings of one lunar month are grouped together under the amanta month they open, because the amanta month begins at the Amavasya and the Shukla Pratipada is its first day.
For each evening the page shows the civil date, the tithi, the sunset and the moonset, and the interval between them in minutes. Where the Moon sets before the Sun the row says so, because no crescent can be seen on such an evening. Where no moonset can be placed beside that sunset at all - which happens at high latitudes, where the Moon can stay up through a short summer night - the row says that instead of printing a time it does not have.
The practice is to look for the crescent in the western sky shortly after sunset and to offer arghya on sighting it. Because the whole observance is the sighting, a clear western horizon matters as much as the timing - a building line or a hill removes the low sky the crescent occupies.
This page gives the astronomy and stops there. It makes no claim about what the sighting obtains, and it does not tell you which evening is yours, because that is what looking is for.
Chandra Darshan is the sighting of the first crescent Moon after Amavasya, seen low in the western sky shortly after sunset. The observance is the sighting itself, with arghya offered on seeing the crescent.
This page does not pick one, and says why. Kane, History of Dharmasastra V.i p.72, settles which civil day carries the Shukla Pratipada (it is taken purvaviddha), but no text cited on this site gives a test for when a young crescent actually becomes visible. Every candidate evening is listed with the interval the Moon stays above the horizon after sunset, which is the quantity that decides it.
It is the time between sunset and moonset - how long the Moon remains above the horizon once the Sun has set. A short interval means a very thin crescent very low in the twilight glare, which may not be visible; a longer one means a higher, thicker and easier crescent. The page gives the number rather than a verdict.
Because there is not always a moonset to place beside that sunset. The Moon rises and sets about fifty minutes later each day, and at high latitudes it can stay above the horizon through a whole short summer night. Where no moonset falls within half a rotation of the sunset the page says so, rather than borrowing an unrelated night's time and printing it as an interval.
No. The new moon (Amavasya) is the conjunction itself, when the Moon is not visible at all. Chandra Darshan is the first evening after it on which the crescent can be seen.
For educational purposes. Astrological interpretations are traditional and not a substitute for professional advice.