Visual Pulsars - Any That Can Be Seen Flashing?

[Mr Q]

As far as I know, the speeds (frequency) of the flashes of light radiated from pulsars is beyond our ability to actually see the flashes. Is this true or is there any that can be seen visibly flashing?

[gkec]

I thought pulsars emitted in the radio spectrum rather than light.

[Naemeth]

I thought pulsars emitted in the radio spectrum rather than light.

Radio waves are on the spectrum of light, they are just outside the visible range. I'm not sure you'd be able to detect any changes in light, they aren't exactly the brightest of objects.

[Capricorn]

PSR J2144-3933 has a period of 8.5 seconds but it is a radio pulsar, so I guess not visible.

Seems that anything that has a period we would be able to see is a radio pulsar, the visible ones, if they are visible, are all millisecond pulsars.

Another reference says that Crab Pulsar and the Vela Pulsar the only visible light pulsars, both seem to be in the milli second period.

[Mr Q]

Thanks guys. The info was what I was suspecting and probably why, for many years, I have not tried to observe any (even if able to with a 250mm scope).

[JulianO]

There are lots of pulsars that can be seen visually. The issue is they would flash very often, like several times a second, and most images are built up over many seconds or minutes, so the pulsing would be smoothed out.