Arcminutes (′) to Arcseconds (″) Conversion

Arcminutes

The arcminute (′, Unicode U+2032) is a unit of angle equal to exactly 1/60 of a degree, or π/10,800 radians. It is used in astronomy to describe the apparent size of celestial objects — the full Moon subtends approximately 30 arcminutes (half a degree) as seen from Earth. In navigation, position coordinates are routinely expressed in degrees and arcminutes: 51°30′N is the latitude of London. In optics, the resolving power of the human eye is approximately 1 arcminute, which is why standard vision charts are designed accordingly.

Arcseconds

The arcsecond (″, Unicode U+2033) is a unit of angle equal to exactly 1/3,600 of a degree, or 1/60 of an arcminute (approximately 4.848 × 10⁻⁶ radians). It is the standard unit of angular resolution in astronomy: the Hubble Space Telescope achieves a resolution of approximately 0.05 arcseconds; the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, has a parallax of 0.769 arcseconds — the basis for measuring its distance. In geodesy, GPS coordinates are routinely recorded to sub-arcsecond precision, corresponding to positional accuracy of approximately 30 metres on Earth's surface.

Convert Arcminutes (′) to other units of Angle