White dwarf spotted!

[mdstuart]

I saw Van Maneens star today. My first ever white dwarf!

Its down and left from the Pegasus square. There is a chart in Burnhams book ..

Burnham's celestial handbook: an ... - Robert Burnham - Google Books

It is 37000 years away at the speed voyager 2 is leaving the solar system so very local.

In fact it moves against the background stars over the years.

Its mag 12 so pretty tough in my 10 inch that low down to the horizon but a very rewarding find for me!

Go on someone image it once a month and then post us a video showing it moving!

Mark

[Black Knight]

Bit of a result there Mark! Excellent!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice one. Thanks for the charts too. 12.4 is tough so low down, but I might give it a shot from a dark (and more treeless) site.

[661-pete]

Good result! I suppose Van Maanen's is the only nearby WD practicable for observation, seeing as both Sirius B and Procyon B are virtually impossible in most amateur equipment (has anyone seen either of those btw?)

Been doing some googling, love trawling up the amazing facts about such a star! Apparently it's about Earth-sized, but with a surface gravity of about 230,000g. Which means that, if you could somehow manage to stand on the surface of this star, you would weigh about 20,000 tonnes.....

[mdstuart]

I think there is at least one more in Eridanus. Omicron but that is up in a few months..

Mark