Barnard's Star - 7 yrs in the making!

[nytecam]

No match for Olly's 400hr piccy but I've been following the progress of Barnard's Star for over 7years - below.  It has the highest known stellar proper motion of 10.3"-arc per annum due north.  Interest tweaked via Burnham's Cel Hdk [anyone use these now or in the past?] with it 1960 epoch position marked.  Data on image with shots from 2008 July 29 and recently 2015 June 18 [main image].

range 6ly

age ~9BY
mv 9.5
red dwarf = BY Dra type
annual PM = 10.3"-arc due north

Hope its of interest.

Nytecam

[Stu]

Great stuff!!

I love seeing how it's possible to detect changes in object size or position over tens of years. Normally needs Hubble to do, so this is fab!

[Ibbo!]

great stuff

[teleskopjo]

Excellent! Does parallax due to the earth's orbit affect this as well or is the motion solely due to the star's movement?

[nytecam]

Excellent! Does parallax due to the earth's orbit affect this as well or is the motion solely due to the star's movement?

Yes spot-on ! A slight wavy motion from side to side is imposed on the star's proper motion by the Earth orbiting the Sun detectable by imaging the star at say bi-monthly intervals.

I think amateur and S&T editor Dennis did Cicco has done this. The shape of the wobble depends on the elliptic co-ords of the star. Effectively you are observing Earth at the same time as the star's PM through space :-)

[teleskopjo]

Yes spot-on ! A slight wavy motion from side to side is imposed on the star's proper motion by the Earth orbiting the Sun detectable by imaging the star at say bi-monthly intervals.

I think amateur and S&T editor Dennis did Cicco has done this. The shape of the wobble depends on the elliptic co-ords of the star. Effectively you are observing Earth at the same time as the star's PM through space :-)

Fantastic!

[JamesF]

Fascinating to see this.  I hadn't even realised it was possible.

James

[Stu]

Nytecam, are there any doubles which are possible to image and detect changes in secondary position over a similar period, or tens of years? I guess Sirius is a prime candidate if you can capture the pup against the glare?

[ultranova]

Vey intresting , thanks for sharing

[nytecam]

Thanks everyone for your interest   Here's a list from Burnham's Celestial Handbook [long out of print but essential reading for dedicated amateurs!] of all the known stars with a Proper Motion [PM] across the sky of >3"-arc per annum. 

Some relatively bright targets like Groombridge 1830 [m7.0/7.0"PM/UMa] and even 61 Cygni [m5.2/5.2"PM/Cyg] are wellplaced for northern observers.  These stars can be snapped in brief exposures of a few seconds preferrably with scopes of 1m -2m focal length [the SCT ideal!] to detect their proper motion over 6 months or so - worth a try

I've found my 2006 pic of Barnard's Star and its PM over 2years compared to my 2008 shot is obvious - my scope fl ~ 1200mm.

ps: RA/Dec in list attached = E1950.0 and need conversion to E2000.0 for current use !

Nytecam

[Mr Spock]

Excellent result!

[ollypenrice]

Another great project!

The discovery story has considerable charm, too, as retold by William Sheehan (The Immortal Fire Within, P 402.) Barnard initially noticed a star on a 1916 plate which had, apparently, not registered on an 1894 plate. He initially suspected a nova but then examined other plates. He was distracted, initially, by some chance overlaps with other stars but realized that the positions for whatever star seemed to be variable and bright lay in a straight line, leading him to conclude that this was a 'runaway star' rather than a set of brightening events in the same region.

Barnard was not an ordinary man...

Olly