The two cycles are incompatible in that the synodic month has a period of about 29.5 days, giving a lunar year of just over 354 days, over 11 days shorter than the mean solar year of 365.2422 days.
One could quite quickly determine the length of the synodic month by counting the days between full moons.
If the Moon orbited the Earth in a perfect circle, the synodic month - using any starting point (new Moon to new Moon, full Moon to full Moon) - would never vary.
Definition of synodic month in US English:
synodic month
noun
Astronomy
another term for lunar month
Example sentencesExamples
One could quite quickly determine the length of the synodic month by counting the days between full moons.
The two cycles are incompatible in that the synodic month has a period of about 29.5 days, giving a lunar year of just over 354 days, over 11 days shorter than the mean solar year of 365.2422 days.
If the Moon orbited the Earth in a perfect circle, the synodic month - using any starting point (new Moon to new Moon, full Moon to full Moon) - would never vary.