MONTH

a measure of time corresponding or nearly corresponding to the length of time required by the Moon to revolve once around the Earth. The synodic month, or complete cycle of phases of the Moon as seen from Earth, averages 29.530588 mean solar days in length (i.e., 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes 3 seconds); because of perturbations in the Moon's orbit, the lengths of all astronomical months vary slightly. The sidereal month is the time needed for the Moon to return to the same place against the background of the stars, 27.321661 days (i.e., 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 12 seconds); the difference between synodic and sidereal lengths is due to the orbital movement of the EarthMoon system around the Sun. The tropical month, 27.321582 days (i.e., 27 days 7 hours 43 minutes 5 seconds), only 7 seconds shorter than the sidereal month, is the time between passages of the Moon through the same celestial longitude. The draconic, or nodical, month of 27.212220 days (i.e., 27 days 5 hours 5 minutes 35.8 seconds) is the time between the Moon's passages through the same node, or intersection of its orbit with the ecliptic, the apparent pathway of the Sun. As a calendrical period, the month is derived from the lunationi.e., the time elapsing between successive new moons (or other phases of the moon). A total of 12 lunations amounts to 354 days and is, roughly, a year. A period of 12 lunations was therefore used by some primitive peoples to make their calendrical year. As is obvious, the lunar-based year (and a calendar derived from it) cannot be accurately correlated with a solar-based year, and the month's continued use in the Gregorian calendar of modern times is merely a recognition of its convenience as a calendar division (see Table).