Astronomy: General

A Dictionary of Astronomy A Dictionary of Earth Sciences Further reading

synodic month

A Dictionary of Astronomy | 1997 | Copyright

synodic month The mean period between successive occurrences of identical lunar phases, e.g. from new Moon to new Moon; also known as a lunation. The synodic month is over two days longer than the Moon's orbital period (the sidereal month), because of the Earth's orbital motion around the Sun. The number of synodic months in the year is exactly one fewer than the annual number of revolutions of the Moon around the Earth. The mean length of the synodic month is 29.530 59 days.

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synodic month

A Dictionary of Earth Sciences | 1999 | | Copyright

synodic month The average time between successive new Moons, which is equal to 29 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes. This period is curiously correlated with the average length of the human female menstrual cycle (29.5 days), while the average length of human pregnancy (266 days) equals nine synodic months (265.8 days).

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AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "synodic month." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "synodic month." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-synodicmonth.html

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "synodic month." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-synodicmonth.html

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