Angular distance or angular separation is the measure of the angle between the orientation of two straight lines, rays, or vectors in three-dimensional space, or the central angle subtended by the radii through two points on a sphere. When the rays are lines of sight from an observer to two points in space, it is known as the apparent distance or apparent separation.
Angular distance appears in mathematics (in particular geometry and trigonometry) and all natural sciences (e.g., kinematics, astronomy, and geophysics). In the classical mechanics of rotating objects, it appears alongside angular velocity, angular acceleration, angular momentum, moment of inertia and torque.
The term angular distance (or separation) is technically synonymous with angle itself, but is meant to suggest the linear distance between objects (for instance, a couple of stars observed from Earth).
Since the angular distance (or separation) is conceptually identical to an angle, it is measured in the same units, such as degrees or radians, using instruments such as goniometers or optical instruments specially designed to point in well-defined directions and record the corresponding angles (such as telescopes).
A
B
A
B
(\alphaA,\alphaB)\in[0,2\pi]
(\deltaA,\deltaB)\in[-\pi/2,\pi/2]
O
OA
OB
OA ⋅ OB=R2\cos\theta
nA |
⋅
nB |
=\cos\theta
In the
(x,y,z)
\theta=\cos-1\left[\sin\deltaA\sin\deltaB+\cos\deltaA\cos\deltaB\cos(\alphaA-\alphaB)\right]
The above expression is valid for any position of A and B on the sphere. In astronomy, it often happens that the considered objects are really close in the sky: stars in a telescope field of view, binary stars, the satellites of the giant planets of the solar system, etc. In the case where
\theta\ll1
\alphaA-\alphaB\ll1
\deltaA-\deltaB\ll1
\cos\theta ≈ 1-
\theta2 | |
2 |
≈ \sin\deltaA\sin\deltaB+\cos\deltaA\cos\deltaB\left[1-
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2 |
\right]
1-
\theta2 | |
2 |
≈ \cos(\deltaA-\deltaB)-\cos\deltaA\cos\deltaB
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2 |
1-
\theta2 | |
2 |
≈ 1-
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2 |
-\cos\deltaA\cos\deltaB
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2 |
\deltaA-\deltaB\ll1
\alphaA-\alphaB\ll1
\cos\deltaA\cos\deltaB
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2 |
≈
2\delta | |
\cos | |
A |
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2 |
\theta ≈ \sqrt{\left[(\alphaA-\alphaB)\cos\delta
2 | |
A\right] |
+(\deltaA-\delta
2} | |
B) |
If we consider a detector imaging a small sky field (dimension much less than one radian) with the
y
\alpha
x
\delta
\theta ≈ \sqrt{\deltax2+\deltay2}
\deltax=(\alphaA-\alphaB)\cos\deltaA
\deltay=\deltaA-\deltaB
Note that the
y
x
\cos\deltaA
R
\delta
R'=R\cos\deltaA