Arcminutes to Arcseconds (′ to ″)

1 arcminute equals 60 arcseconds exactly.

1 arcminute = 60 arcseconds

How to convert arcminutes to arcseconds

To convert arcminutes to arcseconds, multiply the number of arcminutes by 60. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply arcseconds by 0.01666666667 (rounded).

arcseconds = arcminutes × 60

Example: 10 arcminutes = 600 arcseconds.

About these units

Arcminute (′)

General & non-SICurrent unit

One sixtieth of a degree. Used in navigation, astronomy and rifle sighting (minute of angle).

An arcminute is a sixtieth of a degree, which makes it 1/21,600 of a turn or about 0.29 milliradian. The SI Brochure lists it among widely used non-SI units, equal to π/10,800 radian. The units come from Babylonian astronomy and its habit of splitting the degree into 60 parts.

It is a handy size for everyday precision. One arcminute of latitude is roughly one nautical mile, and navigation often writes positions in degrees and decimal minutes. Someone with 20/20 vision can just resolve details about an arcminute apart. The Sun and the Moon each measure around 30 to 32 arcminutes across. Property surveyors use degrees, minutes, and seconds in metes-and-bounds boundary descriptions. Shooters call the unit minute of angle, or MOA, where 1 MOA covers about 1.047 inches at 100 yards.

1 arcminute = 0.0000462962963 turns (approximately).

Sources: BIPM SI Brochure, 9th edition (2019); Wikipedia: Minute and second of arc; Wikipedia: Angular diameter

Arcsecond (″)

General & non-SICurrent unit

One sixtieth of an arcminute (1/3,600 degree). Used for tiny angles in astronomy.

An arcsecond is 1/3,600 of a degree, or 1/1,296,000 of a turn. In radians it is π/648,000, about 4.85 millionths, so it covers roughly 4.8 millimeters at a distance of 1 kilometer. The SI Brochure treats it as an alternative name for the second of plane angle, with the symbol as or ″, and counts it among the widely used non-SI units.

Astronomy is where it matters most. The parsec is the distance at which a star shows a parallax of one arcsecond, about 3.26 light-years, so a star's distance in parsecs is the reciprocal of its parallax in arcseconds. The unit also appears in planetary angular diameters, binary star separations, and star motions. For comparison, the Sun's disk is roughly 1,900 arcseconds across. Smaller angles use the prefixes milli- and micro-.

1 arcsecond = 7.716049383×10⁻⁷ turns (approximately).

Sources: BIPM SI Brochure, 9th edition (2019); ESA Gaia: Cosmic distances; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8 (angle conversion factors)

Related conversions

See all angle units.