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 (Andrew Wall)]

Well done Chris, wow!

[scagman (John)]

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

Cheers.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

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 (Chris)]

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 (Pete)]

Good stuff!

[ChrisM]

Originally Posted by Astroman

Well done Chris, wow!

Thanks Andrew - glad you like it.

Originally Posted by scagman

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

Cheers.

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

Originally Posted by Shiraz

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?

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.

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by Retrograde

Good stuff!

Thanks Pete -

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Yeah, very cool Chris, great project too

Mike

[avandonk]

Here you go Chris 600k

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.co..._04/ChrisM.gif

Bert

[RickS (Rick)]

Well done, Chris! An interesting result.

[ChrisM]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Yeah, very cool Chris, great project too

Mike

Thanks Mike. A project without an end date?

Originally Posted by avandonk

Here you go Chris 600k

http://d1355990.i49.quadrahosting.co..._04/ChrisM.gif

Bert

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

Originally Posted by RickS

Well done, Chris! An interesting result.

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 (Mirko)]

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