Concept
Minute and second of arc
Related concepts (22)
Setting circles
Setting circles are used on telescopes equipped with an equatorial mount to find celestial objects by their equatorial coordinates, often used in star charts and ephemerides. Setting circles consist of two graduated disks attached to the axes – right ascension (RA) and declination (DEC) – of an equatorial mount. The RA disk is graduated into hours, minutes, and seconds. The DEC disk is graduated into degrees, arcminutes, and arcseconds. Since the RA coordinates are fixed onto the celestial sphere, the RA disk is usually driven by a clock mechanism in sync with sidereal time.
Prime (symbol)
The prime symbol , double prime symbol , triple prime symbol , and quadruple prime symbol are used to designate units and for other purposes in mathematics, science, linguistics and music. Although the characters differ little in appearance from those of the apostrophe and single and double quotation marks, the uses of the prime symbol are quite different. While an apostrophe is now often used in place of the prime, and a double quote in place of the double prime (due to the lack of prime symbols on everyday writing keyboards), such substitutions are not considered appropriate in formal materials or in typesetting.