synodic
Adjective
Meaning
Alt. of Synodical
Source: Webster's dictionarySynonyms
Phrases with the word
Examples
A 19-year cycle of 235 synodic months has 991 weeks 2 days 16 hours 595 parts, a common year of 12 synodic months has 50 weeks 4 days 8 hours 876 parts, while a leap year of 13 synodic months has 54 weeks 5 days 21 hours 589 parts.
Accordingly, for convenience, a long-term average length, identical to the mean synodic month of ancient times (also called the molad interval) is used.
Additionally, the synodic month does not fit easily into the year, which makes accurate, rule-based lunisolar calendars complicated.
Due to the eccentricity of the lunar orbit around Earth (and to a lesser degree, the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the Sun), the length of a synodic month can vary by up to seven hours.
A synodic month is longer than a sidereal month because the Earth-Moon system is orbiting the Sun in the same direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth.
A lunation or synodic month is the mean (average) time from one new moon to the next.