Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A unit of angle; 1/60th of an arcminute, or 1/3600th of a degree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a 60th part of a minute of arc

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

arc +‎ second

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Examples

  • See, I'm just biased towards interferometers; -) ** One arcsecond is 1/60th of an arcminute, and one arcminute is 1/60th of a degree.

    Archive 2009-02-25 Nicole 2009

  • See, I'm just biased towards interferometers; -) ** One arcsecond is 1/60th of an arcminute, and one arcminute is 1/60th of a degree.

    First Stellar Images Nicole 2009

  • Whereas ground-based optical telescopes have sub-arcsecond** resolution, and Hubble is quoted as having a resolution of 0.085 arcseconds, single-dish radio telescopes can only get resolutions of a few arcminutes.

    First Stellar Images Nicole 2009

  • The Very Long Baseline Array, stretching from Hawaii to the Caribbean, regularly produces images with milli-arcsecond resolution.

    First Stellar Images Nicole 2009

  • Whereas ground-based optical telescopes have sub-arcsecond** resolution, and Hubble is quoted as having a resolution of 0.085 arcseconds, single-dish radio telescopes can only get resolutions of a few arcminutes.

    Archive 2009-02-25 Nicole 2009

  • The Very Long Baseline Array, stretching from Hawaii to the Caribbean, regularly produces images with milli-arcsecond resolution.

    Archive 2009-02-25 Nicole 2009

  • In astronomy, the preferred unit of measurement for such distances is the parsec, which is defined as the distance at which an object will appear to move one arcsecond of parallax when the observer moves one astronomical unit perpendicular to the line of sight to the observer.

    Ann Aguirre » Blog Archive » A day in the life – blog Jeopardy 2009

  • To image something green on the sky to 1 arcsecond (which optical telescopes routinely do) thus requires a telescope of size at least 10 cm.

    Two Trinities daniel 2007

  • Quite nice, with image/elevation data of the world down to 1 arcsecond.

    GISS Interruptus « Climate Audit 2007

  • The parsec in turn is defined to be a certain multiple of the astronomical unit original such that the parallax of a star as it appears from the Earth is 1 arcsecond.

    The Speculist: Um, no 2006

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