Lunation Number
A lunation number is a way of counting the number of times the Moon goes through its full cycle of phases. You know how sometimes the Moon looks round and full, and other times it looks like a tiny sliver? Well, when the Moon goes through all of its phases and ends up back at a full Moon again, we call that one complete cycle a lunation.
Scientists and astronomers like to keep track of how many times the Moon has completed this cycle, and they use the lunation number to do so. So, every time the Moon goes through all its phases and ends up back at a full Moon again, we add one to the lunation number.
Think of it like counting how many times you've gone up and down a slide at the playground. Every time you slide down and then climb back up to the top, you've completed one cycle. And just like how you might keep track of how many times you do this, scientists keep track of how many times the Moon completes its cycle with the lunation number.
Scientists and astronomers like to keep track of how many times the Moon has completed this cycle, and they use the lunation number to do so. So, every time the Moon goes through all its phases and ends up back at a full Moon again, we add one to the lunation number.
Think of it like counting how many times you've gone up and down a slide at the playground. Every time you slide down and then climb back up to the top, you've completed one cycle. And just like how you might keep track of how many times you do this, scientists keep track of how many times the Moon completes its cycle with the lunation number.