Optical rotation angle measuring system

The present invention is directed to an optical system for measuring the rotation angle of rotatable object having a rotation shaft (2), which system comprises a reflective diffraction element (6) mounted on said shaft and a module that includes a radiation source (8) emitting a monochromatic beam (bo) towards this element and a radiation-sensitive detection structure (14, 16), the diffraction element is configured to project diffraction order images (18) of its pattern onto associated sections (50(1)-54(2)) of an annular grating structure forming part of the detection structure and the surface size of the diffraction element is smaller than 20% of the surface size of the annular grating structure.