Proxima Centauri motion

[ChrisM]

The two attached images of Proxima Centauri were taken 363 days apart.

After registering the images in PixInsight, I was able to use PI again to measure (approximately) the movement relative to the background stars. I calculated a change in position of 3.8 arc seconds, which at the known distance of 4.24 LY, equates to an apparent motion of 4.9 AU (if my calcs are correct) - just less than Jupiter's orbital radius. Further calcs would indicate a velocity of about 23 km/sec at right angles to our line of sight.

(You will need to load both images then click from one to the other. Prox Cent should be easily visible to the right and below the centre.)

Chris

[Astroman]

Well done Chris, wow!

[scagman]

Yes Chris, as Andrew say "WOW". I think thats actually very awesome.

Cheers.

[Shiraz]

:thumbsup: very neat. maybe it might be interesting to look it up in some of the published survey images to see the motion over longer periods?

[Screwdriverone]

That is very cool Chris,

It is fun to flick between them and try and check to see if other stars have moved too.

Why not make an animated gif of the two shots and transition on say, 3 secs?

I haven't seen too many star position experiments like this, so hats off to you for the effort and idea, it is extremely interesting to see the motion first hand and not just in print.

Cheers

Chris

[Retrograde]

Good stuff! :thumbsup:

[ChrisM]

Thanks Andrew - glad you like it.


Thanks John. What's awesome is the distance involved. Makes one start to appreciate how far away the 'average'(?) star is.

Thanks Ray. Must have a look to see what's available. I recall seeing one image last year (don't know when it was taken) that showed Prox miles away, so given how little it's moved in 12 months, I can only guess that it was taken maybe 20 years or more ago.


Thanks Chris. Pretty sure I've seen another animation some time ago, but I must say that I was impressed with the registration achieved in PI. First time I've done that. The greatest effort occurred trying to identify which star was Prox Cent after I took the first image last year. Now it's easy to find!

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisM]

Thanks Pete -

[strongmanmike]

Yeah, very cool Chris, great project too :thumbsup:

Mike

[avandonk]

Here you go Chris 600k

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.com.au/2014_04/ChrisM.gif

Bert

[RickS]

Well done, Chris! An interesting result.

[ChrisM]

Thanks Mike. A project without an end date?


That's great thanks Bert. I must learn how to do that one day.


Thanks Rick. Not a surprising result, but in fact less movement in a year than what I was expecting.

Cheers, Chris

[avandonk]

Chris I use UnFREEz, here

http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/


The images need to be gifs of exactly the same pixel size. The site gives instructions. It is also free.

Bert

[ChrisM]

Thanks Bert - that is a small size program for what it does.

Chris

[N1]

Only found this now. One of the most interesting and awesome things I've seen in a long time.