apparent size of an astronomical body

Question

What's the name of the measure of apparent (visible) size of a body? e.g. the Sun and the Moon appear to be roughly the same size, despite the Sun being vastly bigger - because the Moon is much closer. What's this apparent size called?

score 12 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 27 '17 at 14:20

12

It's angular diameter (a.k.a angular size or apparent size). This XKCD comic strip shows in an interesting way the angular size of some of the most remarkable objects in the sky:

Comic about apparent size of celestial bodies

edited Mar 27 '17 at 14:20

Mikko Rantalainen

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answered Jan 10 '14 at 13:26

Eduardo Serra

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score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 10 '14 at 09:21

6

Angular size. That is, the vieving angle that the body spans on sky.

answered Jan 10 '14 at 09:21

Envite

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apparent size of an astronomical body

2 Answers2