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Old 02-06-2008, 08:43 AM
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higginsdj
A Lazy Astronomer

higginsdj is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 614
Imaging a Black Hole (or Neutron Star)

Well I got my first image of a MACHO (I assume either a Black Hole or Neutron Star) this weekend when I successfully took photometry on a microFUN target (gravitational microlensing of a galactic bulge star). In the 10 hours I followed the target it's magnitude increased from mag 15 to mag 13, peaking a couple of hours later.

Still Image here: http://www.david-higgins.com/Astrono...croFUN2008.htm

Movie here: http://www.david-higgins.com/mb225.mov (QT movie 608kb)

Just watch for the brightening star in the centre of field.

What you are seeing is the MACHO passing almost directly in front of a background star, increasing it's brightness through gravitational lensing.

Cheers
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