Minute of arc

A minute of arc (MOA), arcminute, or minute arc, is 2.1 Firearms

a unit of angular measurement equal to 1 60 of one degree.
Because one degree is 1 360 of a circle, one minute of arc The arcminute is commonly found in the rearms indusis 1 , of a circle, or , radians.
try and literature, particularly concerning the accuracy of
It is used in elds that involve very small angles, such as ries, though the industry refers to it as minute of angle.
astronomy, optometry, ophthalmology, optics, navigation It is especially popular with shooters familiar with the
Imperial measurement system because 1 MOA subtends
and marksmanship.
approximately one inch at 100 yards, a traditional disThe number of square arc minutes in a complete
tance on target ranges. Since most modern rie scopes
( 10,800 )2
sphere is 4
= 466,560,000
= approximately are adjustable in half (1 2 ), quarter (1 4 ), or eighth (1 8 )

148,510,660 square arc minutes.

MOA increments, also known as clicks, this makes zeA second of arc (arcsecond, arcsec) is 1 60 of an arc roing and adjustments much easier. For example, if the
minute, 1 , of a degree, 1 ,, of a circle, and point of impact is 3 high and 1.5 left of the point of

, (about 1 ,) of a radian. This is approximately aim at 100 yards, the scope needs to be adjusted 3 MOA
the angle subtended by a U.S. dime coin at a distance of down, and 1.5 MOA right. Such adjustments are trivial
when the scopes adjustment dials have an MOA scale
4 kilometres (about 2.5 mi).[1]
printed on them, and even guring the right number of
To express even smaller angles, standard SI prexes can
clicks is relatively easy on scopes that click in fractions of
be employed. In particular, the milliarcsecond, abbreMOA.
viated mas, is commonly used in astronomy.
One thing to be aware of is that some scopes, including
some higher-end models, are calibrated such that an adjustment of 1 MOA corresponds to exactly 1 inch, rather
than 1.047. This is commonly known as the Shooters
1 Symbols and abbreviations
MOA (SMOA) or Inches Per Hundred Yards (IPHY).
While the dierence between one true MOA and one
[5]
The standard symbol for marking the arcminute is the SMOA is less than half of an inch even at 1000 yards,
prime () (U+2032), though a single quote (') (U+0027) this error compounds signicantly on longer range shots
is commonly used where only ASCII characters are per- that may require adjustment upwards of 20-30 MOA to
mitted. One arcminute is thus written 1. It is also abbre- compensate for the bullet drop. If a shot requires an adviated as arcmin or amin or, less commonly, the prime justment of 20 MOA or more, the dierence between
true MOA and SMOA will add up to 1 inch or more. In
with a circumex over it ( ).
competitive target shooting, this might mean the dierThe standard symbol for the arcsecond is the double ence between a hit and a miss.
prime () (U+2033), though a double quote ( extquotedbl) (U+0022) is commonly used where only ASCII The physical group size equivalent to m minutes of arc can
m
characters are permitted. One arcsecond is thus written be calculated as follows: group size = tan( 60 ) distance.
In the example previously given, for 1 minute of arc, and
1. It is also abbreviated as arcsec or asec.
substituting 3,600 inches for 100 yards, 3,600 tan(1 60 )
In celestial navigation, seconds of arc are rarely used in = 1.047 inches. In metric units 1 MOA at 100 meters =
calculations, the preference usually being for degrees, 2.908 centimeters.
minutes and decimals of a minute, written for example as 42 25.32 or 42 25.322.[2][3] This notation has Sometimes, a precision rearms accuracy will be meabeen carried over into marine GPS receivers, which nor- sured in MOA. This simply means that under ideal condimally display latitude and longitude in the latter format tions i.e. no wind, match-grade ammo, clean barrel, and
a vise or a benchrest used to eliminate shooter error, the
by default.[4]
gun is capable of producing a group of shots whose center points (center-to-center) t into a circle, the average
diameter of circles in several groups can be subtended by
that amount of arc. For example, a 1 MOA rie should
2 Uses
be capable, under ideal conditions, of shooting an average 1-inch groups at 100 yards. Most higher-end ries are
1

USES

warrantied by their manufacturer to shoot under a given

MOA threshold (typically 1 MOA or better) with specic
ammunition and no error on the shooters part. For example, Remingtons M24 Sniper Weapon System is required
to shoot 0.8 MOA or better, or be rejected.

grees given to three decimal places (1 , of a degree)

have about 1 4 the precision of degrees-minutes-seconds
(1 , of a degree) and specify locations within about 120
meters or 400 feet.

Rie manufacturers and gun magazines often refer to this

capability as sub-MOA, meaning it shoots under 1 MOA.
This means that a single group of 3 to 5 shots at 100 yards,
or the average of several groups, will measure less than 1
MOA between the two furthest shots in the group, i.e.
all shots fall within 1 MOA. If larger samples are taken
(i.e., more shots per group) then group size typically increases, however this will ultimately average out. If a rie was truly a 1 MOA rie, it would be just as likely that
two consecutive shots land exactly on top of each other as
that they land 1 MOA apart. For 5 shot groups, based on
95% condence a rie that normally shoots 1 MOA can
be expected to shoot groups between 0.58 MOA and 1.47
MOA, although the majority of these groups will be under 1 MOA. What this means in practice is if a rie that
shoots 1 groups on average at 100 yards shoots a group
measuring .7 followed by a group that is 1.3 this is not
statistically abnormal.[6][7]

2.3 Property cadastral surveying

Related to cartography, property boundary surveying using the metes and bounds system relies on fractions of a
degree to describe property lines angles in reference to
cardinal directions. A boundary mete is described with
a beginning reference point, the cardinal direction North
or South followed by an angle less than 90 degrees and
a second cardinal direction, and a linear distance. The
boundary runs the specied linear distance from the beginning point, the direction of the distance being determined by rotating the rst cardinal direction the specied
angle toward the second cardinal direction. For example, North 65 39 18 West 85.69 feet would describe a
line running from the starting point 85.69 feet in a direction 65 39 18 (or 65.655) away from north toward the
west.

The Metric System counterpart of the MOA is the MilRad, being equal to one 1000th of the target range, laid 2.4
out on a circle that has the observer as centre and the target range as radius. The number of MilRads on a full such
circle therefore always is equal to 2 x x 1000, regardless the target range. Therefore 1 MOA = 0.2908 MilRad. This means that an object which spans 1 MilRad
on the reticle is at a range that is in meters equal to the
objects size in millimeters (e.g. an object of 100 mm @
1 Milrad is 100 meters away). So there is no conversion
factor required, contrary to the MOA system. The markings on a reticle that mark MilRads are called MilDots.
Such reticle is called a MilDot Reticle.

2.2

Cartography

Astronomy

e
Ltter E f
o
r m 20/20 (eighth)
o
r w of
Snellen chart, at 20 feet: 5' tall and wide
Human 20/20 visual acuity:
about 1' or 60"
International Space Station:
max. about 1' or 60"
(depends on orientation)
Venus: 9.7"- 66.0"
Jupiter: 29.8"- 50.1"
Mars:
3.5"- 25.1"
Saturn: 14.5"- 20.1"
Mercury: 4.5"- 13.0"
Uranus: 3.3"- 4.1"
Neptune:2.2"- 2.4"

Minutes of arc (and its subunit, seconds of arc or SOA

equal to a sixtieth of a MOA) are also used in cartography
and navigation. At sea level one minute of arc along the
Moon: min.29.43'
Sun: min. 31.6'
Sun: max. 32.7'
Moon: max. 33.5'
equator or a meridian equals approximately one Nautical
mile (1.852 km or 1.151 mi). A second of arc, one sixtieth of this amount, is about 30 meters or roughly 100 feet. Comparison of angular diameter of the Sun, Moon, planets and
The exact distance varies along meridian arcs because the the International Space Station. To get a true representation of
the sizes, view the image at a distance of 103 times the width of
gure of the Earth is slightly oblate.
Positions are traditionally given using degrees, minutes,
and seconds of arcs for latitude, the arc north or south
of the equator, and for longitude, the arc east or west
of the Prime Meridian. Any position on or above the
Earths reference ellipsoid can be precisely given with
this method. However, because of the somewhat clumsy
base60 nature of minutes and seconds, positions are
frequently expressed in fractional degrees only, expressed
in decimal form to an equal amount of precision. De-

the Moon: max. circle. For example, if this circle is 10 cm wide

on your monitor, view it from 10.3 m away.

The arcminute and arcsecond are also used in astronomy.

Degrees (and therefore arcminutes) are used to measure
declination, or angular distance north or south of the
celestial equator. The arcsecond is also often used to
describe parallax, due to very small parallax angles for
stellar parallax, and tiny angular diameters (e.g., Venus
varies between 10 and 60). The parallax, proper mo-

3
tion and angular diameter of a star may also be written
in milliarcseconds (mas), or thousandths of an arcsecond. The parsec gets its name from parallax second,
for those arcseconds.
The ESA astrometric space probe Gaia is hoped to measure star positions to 20 microarcseconds (as) when it
begins producing catalog positions sometime after 2016.
There are about 1.3 trillion as in a circle. As seen from
Earth, one as is about the size of a period at the end of a
sentence in the Apollo mission manuals left on the moon.
Currently the best catalog positions of stars actually measured are in terms of milliarcseconds, by the U.S. Naval
Observatory. A milliarcsecond is about the size of a dime
atop the Eiel Tower as seen from New York City.
Apart from the Sun, the star with the largest angular diameter from Earth is R Doradus, a red supergiant with a
diameter of 0.05 arcsecond.[8] Because of the eects of
atmospheric seeing, ground-based telescopes will smear
the image of a star to an angular diameter of about 0.5
arcsecond; in poor seeing conditions this increases to 1.5
arcseconds or even more. The dwarf planet Pluto has
proven dicult to resolve because its angular diameter
is about 0.1 arcsecond.[9] This is roughly equivalent to a
(40 mm) ping-pong ball viewed at a distance of 50 miles
(80 km).
Space telescopes are not aected by the Earths atmosphere but are diraction limited. For example, the
Hubble space telescope can reach an angular size of stars
down to about 0.1. Techniques exist for improving seeing on the ground. Adaptive optics, for example, can produce images around 0.05 arcsecond on a 10 m class telescope.

2.5

Human vision

In humans, 20/20 vision is the ability to resolve a spatial

pattern separated by a visual angle of one minute of arc.
A 20/20 letter subtends 5 minutes of arc total.

2.6

Materials

The deviation from parallelism between two surfaces, for

instance in optical engineering, is usually measured in arcminutes or arcseconds.

Notes and references

[1] Filippenko, Alex, Understanding the Universe (of The

Great Courses, on DVD), Lecture 43, time 12:05, The
Teaching Company, Chantilly, VA, USA, 2007
[2] CELESTIAL NAVIGATION COURSE. International
Navigation School. Retrieved 4 November 2010. It is a
straight forward method [to obtain a position at sea] and
requires no mathematical calculation beyond addition and

subtraction of degrees and minutes and decimals of minutes

[3] Astro Navigation Syllabus. Retrieved 4 November
2010. extquotedbl[Sextant errors] are sometimes [given]
in seconds of arc, which will need to be converted to decimal minutes when you include them in your calculation.
[4] Shipmate GN30. Norinco. Retrieved 4 November
2010.
[5] http://www.shootingillustrated.com/index.php/6227/
mil-moa-or-inches/
[6] Wheeler, Robert E. Statistical notes on rie group patterns. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
[7] Bramwell, Denton (January 2009). Group Therapy
The Problem: How accurate is your rie? extquotedbl.
Varmint Hunter 69. Retrieved 21 May 2009.
[8] Some studies have shown a larger angular diameter for
Betelgeuse. Various studies have produced gures of between 0.042 and 0.069 arcseconds for the stars diameter.
The variability of Betelgeuse and diculties in producing a precise reading for its angular diameter make any
denitive gure conjectural.
[9] NASA.gov Pluto Fact Sheet

4 External links
MOA: Rie Reticles by Robert Simeone

5 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Minute of arc Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_of_arc?oldid=608296017 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Zundark, Tarquin,

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