<Tr> <Td> Anomalistic month </Td> <Td> 7001275545500000000 ♠ 27.554 550 </Td> <Td> with respect to the perigee (precesses in 3232.6054 days = 8.850578 years) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Draconic month </Td> <Td> 7001272122210000000 ♠ 27.212 221 </Td> <Td> with respect to the ascending node (precesses in 6793.4765 days = 18.5996 years) </Td> </Tr> <P> There are several different periods associated with the lunar orbit . The sidereal month is the time it takes to make one complete orbit around Earth with respect to the fixed stars . It is about 27.32 days . The synodic month is the time it takes the Moon to reach the same visual phase . This varies notably throughout the year, but averages around 29.53 days . The synodic period is longer than the sidereal period because the Earth--Moon system moves in its orbit around the Sun during each sidereal month, hence a longer period is required to achieve a similar alignment of Earth, the Sun, and the Moon . The anomalistic month is the time between perigees and is about 27.55 days . The Earth--Moon separation determines the strength of the lunar tide raising force . </P> <P> The draconic month is the time from ascending node to ascending node . The time between two successive passes of the same ecliptic longitude is called the tropical month . The latter three periods are slightly different from the sidereal month . </P>

Time taken by moon to revolve around sun