New moon western horizon shortly after sunset and before moonset. A lunation or synodic month is the average time from one new moon to the next. In the J2000.0 epoch, the average length of a lunation is 29.530588 days (or 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.8 seconds). However, the length of any one synodic month can vary from 29.26 to 29.80 days due to the perturbing effects of the Sun's gravity on the Moon's eccentric orbit. In a lunar calendar, each month corresponds to a lunation. Each lunar cycle can be assigned a unique lunation number to identify it. The
Intercalary month (Egypt) relative to the Gregorian calendar in 2100 (2092). The unusual calendar is notably used in Ethiopian tourist information to advertise the country's "thirteen months of summer". Intercalary month (Egypt) The intercalary month or epagomenal days of the Egyptian, Coptic, and Ethiopian calendars are a period of five days in common years and six days in leap years in addition to those calendars' 12 standard months, sometimes reckoned as their thirteenth month. They originated as a periodic measure to ensure that the heliacal rising of Sirius would occur in the 12th month of the Egyptian lunar calendar but became a regular