Cycle Pattern of the Month

Lunar month

Animation of the Moon as it cycles through its phases, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. The
apparent wobbling of the Moon is known as libration.
In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies (new moons or full
moons). The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month.
This article deals with the definitions of a 'month' that are mainly of significance in astronomy.
For other definitions, including a description of a month in the calendars of different cultures
around the world, see: month.

Variations
In Shona, Middle-Eastern, and European traditions, the month starts when the young crescent
moon becomes first visible at evening after conjunction with the Sun one or two days before that
evening (e.g., in the Islamic calendar). In ancient Egypt the lunar month began on the day when
the waning moon could no longer be seen just before sunrise. Others use calculation, of varying
degrees of sophistication, e.g., the Hebrew calendar or the ecclesiastical lunar calendar. Yet others
run from full moon to full moon. Calendars count integer days, so months may be 29 or 30 days
in length, in some regular or irregular sequence. In India the month from conjunction to
conjunction is divided into thirty parts known as tithis. A tithi is between 19 to 26 hours long. The
date is named after the tithi ruling at sunrise. When the tithi is shorter than the day, the tithi may
jump. This case is called xaya or loap. Conversely a tithi may 'stall' as well, that is - the same tithi
would be associated with two consecutive days, a case which is known as vriddhi.
In common law, a "lunar month" traditionally meant exactly 28 days or four weeks, thus a contract
for 12 months ran for exactly 48 weeks.[1] In the United Kingdom, the lunar month was formally
replaced by the calendar month for deeds and other written contracts by the Law of Property Act
1925 and for all other legal purposes by the Interpretation Act 1978.[2]

Terminology
There are several types of lunar month. The term lunar month usually refers to the synodic
month because it is the cycle of the visible phases of the Moon.
Most of the following types of lunar month, except the distinction between the sidereal and tropical
months, were first recognized in Babylonian lunar astronomy.
Sidereal month
The period of the Moon's orbit as defined with respect to the celestial sphere of apparently fixed
stars (nowadays the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF)) is known as a sidereal
month because it is the time it takes the Moon to return to a similar position among
the stars (Latin: sidera): 27.321661 days (27 d 7 h 43 min 11.6 s).[3] This type of month has been
observed among cultures in the Middle East, India, and China in the following way: they divided
the sky into 27 or 28 lunar mansions, one for each day of the month, identified by the prominent
star(s) in them.
Synodic month
The synodic month (Greek: συνοδικός, synodikós, meaning "pertaining to a synod, i.e., a
meeting"; in this case, of the Sun and the Moon) is the average period of the Moon's orbit with
respect to the line joining the Sun and Earth. This is the period of the lunar phases, because the
Moon's appearance depends on the position of the Moon with respect to the Sun as seen from the
Earth.
While the Moon is orbiting the Earth, the Earth is progressing in its orbit around the Sun. After
completing a sidereal month, the Moon must move a little further to reach the new position having
the same angular distance from the Sun, appearing to move with respect to the stars since the
previous month. Therefore, the synodic month takes 2.2 days longer than the sidereal month. Thus,
about 13.37 sidereal months, but about 12.37 synodic months, occur in a Gregorian year.
Since Earth's orbit around the Sun is elliptical and not circular, the speed of Earth's progression
around the Sun varies during the year. Thus, the angular rate is faster nearer periapsis and slower
near apoapsis. The same is so for the Moon's orbit around the Earth. Because of these variations
in angular rate, the actual time between lunations may vary from about 29.18 to about 29.93 days.
The long-term average duration is 29.530587981 days[4] (29 d 12 h 44 min 2.8016 s). The synodic
month is used to calculate eclipse cycles.[5]
Tropical month
It is customary to specify positions of celestial bodies with respect to the vernal equinox. Because
of Earth's precession of the equinoxes, this point moves back slowly along the ecliptic. Therefore,
it takes the Moon less time to return to an ecliptic longitude of 0° than to the same point amid
the fixed stars: 27.321582 days (27 d 7 h 43 min 4.7 s). This slightly shorter period is known as
the tropical month (cf. the analogous tropical year).
Anomalistic month
See also: Lunar precession and Apsidal precession
The Moon's orbit approximates an ellipse rather than a circle. However, the orientation (as well as
the shape) of this orbit is not fixed. In particular, the position of the extreme points (the line of
the apsides: perigee and apogee), rotates once (apsidal precession) in about 3,233 days
(8.85 years). It takes the Moon longer to return to the same apsis because it has moved ahead
during one revolution. This longer period is called the anomalistic month and has an average
length of 27.554551 days (27 d 13 h 18 min 33.2 s). The apparent diameter of the Moon varies
with this period, so this type has some relevance for the prediction of eclipses(see Saros), whose
extent, duration, and appearance (whether total or annular) depend on the exact apparent diameter
of the Moon. The apparent diameter of the full moon varies with the full moon cycle, which is the
beat period of the synodic and anomalistic month, as well as the period after which the apsides
point to the Sun again.
An anomalistic month is longer than a sidereal month because the perigee moves in the same
direction as the Moon is orbiting the Earth, one revolution in nine years. Therefore, the Moon takes
a little longer to return to perigee than to return to the same star.
Draconic month
See also: Lunar precession, Nodal precession, and Nodal period
A draconic or draconitic month[6] is also known as a nodal or nodical month.[7] The
name draconic refers to a mythical dragon, said to live in the lunar nodes and eat the Sun or Moon
during an eclipse.[6] A solar or lunar eclipse is possible only when the Moon is at or near either of
the two points where its orbit crosses the ecliptic plane; i.e., the satellite is at or near either of
its orbital nodes.
The orbit of the Moon lies in a plane that is inclined about 5.14° with respect to the ecliptic plane.
The line of intersection of these planes passes through the two points at which the Moon's orbit
crosses the ecliptic plane: the ascending node, where the Moon enters the Northern Celestial
Hemisphere, and the descending node, where the Moon moves into the Southern.
The draconic or nodical month is the average interval between two successive transits of the Moon
through the same node. Because of the torque exerted by the Sun's gravity on the angular
momentum of the Earth–Moon system, the plane of the Moon's orbit gradually rotates westward,
which means the nodes gradually rotate around Earth. As a result, the time it takes the Moon to
return to the same node is shorter than a sidereal month, lasting 27.212220 days (27 d 5 h 5 min
35.8 s). The nodes of the Moon's orbit precesses 360° in about 6,798 days (18.6 years).
A draconic month is shorter than a sidereal month because the nodes precess in the opposite
direction to that in which the Moon is orbiting Earth, one rotation every 18.6 years. Therefore, the
Moon returns to the same node slightly earlier than it returns to meet the same reference star.

Cycle lengths
Regardless of the culture, all lunar months approximate the mean length of the synodic month, the
average period the Moon takes to cycle through its phases (new, first quarter, full, last quarter) and
back again: 29–30[8]days. The Moon completes one orbit around Earth every 27.3 days (a sidereal
month), but due to Earth's orbital motion around the Sun, the Moon does not yet finish a synodic
cycle until it has reached the point in its orbit where the Sun is in the same relative position.[9]
This table lists the average lengths of five types of astronomical lunar month.[10] These are not
constant, so a first-order (linear) approximation of the secular change is provided:
Valid for the epoch J2000.0 (1 January 2000 12:00 TT):

Month type Length in days

anomalistic 27.554549878 − 0.000000010390 × Y

 sidereal 27.321661547 + 0.000000001857 × Y

tropical 27.321582241 + 0.000000001506 × Y

draconic 27.212220817 + 0.000000003833 × Y

synodic 29.530588853 + 0.000000002162 × Y

Note: In this table, time is expressed in Ephemeris Time (more precisely Terrestrial Time) with
days of 86,400 SI seconds. Y is years since the epoch (2000), expressed in Julian years of
365.25 days. For calendric calculations, one would probably use days measured in the time scale
of Universal Time, which follows the somewhat unpredictable rotation of the Earth, and
progressively accumulates a difference with ephemeris time called ΔT.
Apart from the long term (millennial) drift in these values, all these periods vary continually around
their mean values because of the complex orbital effects of the Sun and planets affecting its
motion.[11]
Patterns of the Moon

Getty Images

Like all orbiting bodies, the moon presents several different patterns. These patterns sometimes
are complicated by the fact that the moon revolves around the Earth while at the same time the
Earth revolves around the sun. In the past, farmers used the moon as their guide for planting, and
in ancient times, the calendar was based on the lunar cycles.

Phases of the Moon

The most obvious patterns of the moon are the phases of the moon, which move in a month-long
cycle. Because the moon reflects its light from the sun, only the part of the moon that faces the sun
is visible. As the moon revolves around the Earth, its shadow covers part of its surface. The full
moon is when the entire moon is visible. A quarter way through the cycle, half of the moon is
visible, known as the first quarter. Half way through the month, the moon seems to disappear,
which is known as a new moon. Another quarter way through the cycle, the other half of the moon
is visible; this is known as the third quarter.

Harvest Moon and Blue Moon

In the past, farmers used the moon to tell them when to plant crops and harvest them. Each month
had a name for the moon, based on what should be done. For example, the full moon in October
was called a harvest moon, which is when farmers needed to harvest crops before winter. Another
common moon expression is a blue moon, which is an expression to mean something rare.
Normally, the four seasons have three full moons each, known as early, middle and late. However,
sometimes a season has four full moons. When this happened, the third full moon of the season
was called the blue moon, so the last moon could still be called the late moon.

Eclipses

Periodically, as the moon revolves around the Earth, it passes through the Earth's shadow. Because
all or part of the sunlight that normally illuminates the moon is obstructed during this time, the
moon experiences an eclipse. During a lunar eclipse, the visible portion of the moon appears light
red. The moon can also move between the Earth and the sun, which produces a solar eclipse. A
solar eclipse tends to be more dramatic because the moon partially obscures the sun in the middle
of the day.
Tides

As the moon revolves around the Earth, its gravity pulls on the oceans. This causes the oceans to
swell slightly and the sea level to rise when aligned with the moon. As the moon moves around
the Earth, the tides rise and fall. High tide and low tide do not happen at the same time every day
or at the same time around the world because they are determined by the movement of the moon,
not the rise and fall of the sun.

Image Patterns

In addition to patterns caused by the moon, there are patterns within the moon itself. Because the
moon has no atmosphere, it is covered with craters and debris that has fallen from space for
millions of years. These craters sometimes form images in the moon's surface. The most common
image is the man in the moon, which features two impact craters that look like eyes connected to
one that looks like a mouth. There is also a woman in the moon, which is a humanlike figure
connected to one of the man's eyes. Other images in the moon's surface include craters in the shape
of a rabbit.