Is the lunar synodic month 29.530072 or 29.53058 days long?

My reference book says that it equals 29.5305882 ephemeris days. An ephemeris day is 86400 ephemeris seconds long, and an ephemeris second is about equal to the second derived from the atomic time standard. You will have to go to the US Naval Observatory web site to learn more about definitions for time. A sidereal day is 86164.09055 ephemeris seconds long.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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