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The smallest detail visible on the Sun with ground based telescopes is about 1 second of arc. How large of a r?

The smallest detail visible on the Sun with ground based Telescopes is about 1 second of arc. How large of a region does this represent on the Sun?

1 second of arc = 1/3600 degree = (1/3600)*(180/pi) radians

Linear distance = angle in radians * distance to sun

This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Telescopes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “The smallest detail visible on the Sun with ground based telescopes is about 1 second of arc. How large of a r?”

  1. Randy P Says:
    December 1st, 2009 at 4:12 am

    1 second of arc = 1/3600 degree = (1/3600)*(180/pi) radians

    Linear distance = angle in radians * distance to sun
    References :

  2. sageofstars Says:
    December 1st, 2009 at 4:21 am

    The Sun is about 865,000 mi. in diameter and appears about 1/2 degree in the sky. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree and 60 arcseconds in an arcminute. This means you divide 865,000 mi by 1800 = 481 miles across. There are interferometers that see better than 1 second of arc.
    References :

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