Visual angle in the context of "Angular diameter"

⭐ In the context of optics and vision sciences, what is the relationship between 'angular diameter' and 'visual angle'?

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⭐ Core Definition: Visual angle

Visual angle is the angle a viewed object subtends at the eye, usually stated in degrees of arc.It also is called the object's angular size.

The diagram on the right shows an observer's eye looking at a frontal extent (the vertical arrow) that has a linear size , located in the distance from point .

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👉 Visual angle in the context of Angular diameter

The angular diameter, angular width, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular separation (in units of angle) describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the visual angle, and in optics, it is the angular aperture (of a lens). The angular diameter can alternatively be thought of as the angular displacement through which an eye or camera must rotate to look from one side of an apparent circle to the opposite side.

A person can resolve with their naked eyes diameters down to about 1 arcminute (approximately 0.017° or 0.0003 radians). This corresponds to 0.3 m at a 1 km distance, or to perceiving Venus as a disk under optimal conditions.

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