Understanding Proper motions

[lunator]

A lot of the double star work involves getting you head around proper motions etc.

I came across this site that has a great proper motion animation.

It really shows you what PM is and how the sky is (very) slowly changing

http://www.rssd.esa.int/hipparcos/apps/ShowMotion.html

Cheers

Ian

[FLO]

Ian,

The link isn't working (it crashes Firefox). Do you have another

[MikeP]

Steve,

It crashed Firefox on me too, but if you restart it and use restore it seems to work.

I've no idea what the site is trying to show.

Mike

[Greg]

Re-Install your Java..

[Astroman]

Did fine with my Vanilla Mozilla.

If you input coordinates for a star and hit "animate" it shows the proper motion of the stars in the selected field. Leave the "trails" on, and it traces the path the star takes over the millenia. Kinda neat! (Hint: Pick something in Ursa Major, one of the major stars and see.)

[daz]

Steve - Open in IE, install the Java and components and it then works in FF

[lunator]

Steve

Sorry to give you such a headache........

Daz, Greg, AM

Thanks for the solution