Imaging a Black Hole (or Neutron Star)

[higginsdj]

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/Astronomy/MicroFUN/MicroFUN2008.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

[[1ponders]]

Wow, that's amazing David. :clap: Hat's off to you for your dedication and expertise. Wonderful achievement.:thumbsup:

[higginsdj]

Actually my hats off to the microFUN team at Ohio-State who were able to take my Clear and I filtered images and produce better than 1% photometry - now that is expertise and skill :)

The aim is to detect anomalies in the lightcurve of the star in an effort to detect an extrasolar planet.

Cheers

[madtuna]

ok....I'm impressed!
very well done!