Barnard's Star - imaged today (and see you next year)

[starfinder]

Thanks all for the comments!

I've done a computation of the movement of Barnard's Star over the 1 year, from 20 July 2011 to 20 July 2012, and derived a figure of 10.3075 arc seconds.

The method used was to superimpose the two images (which I took 1 year apart) precisely, and then compare the 2 positions of Barnard's Star against the distances between 4 nearby pairs of stars. The distances between those 4 pairs were obtained from TheSky6 planetarium software.
Thereafter, it was a rather straightforward process of measuring the various distances on my PC's screen with a ruler.
Perhaps that is a bit simplistic? Anyway, the workings are:
Pair 1: 409" = 124mm; Pair 2: 98" = 29.5mm; Pair 3: 90" = 27mm; Pair 4: 82" = 24.5mm
Average of 4 pairs: 1mm = 3.325"
Distance moved by Barnard's Star in mm on PC screen (centre to centre): 3.1mm
Distance moved by Barnard's Star in arc seconds: 3.1mm x 3.325" = 10.3075".

And my figure of 10.3075" indeed corresponds with the published value of 10.3"! (See for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard's_Star)

Below is an annotated superimposed image of the 2 positions of Barnard's Star and that of the surrounding stars used in the computation.

And further below is an improved animated GIF which I've made using the free Photoscape software, based on the same two images. (Note: the animation might not run on all platforms/software).

http://i.picoodle.com/858j6zdq


http://i.picoodle.com/8a5j6zea

[cataclysm]

Really impressive work Gavin!

[shirox]

wow interesting target!

[Airconvent]

Goodness..you did it! Amazing effort once again Gavin!

[antares2063]

Gavin: any plans to continue for this year? ...weather's been bad unfortunately

Regards,
Junwei

[starfinder]

Jun Wei: yes, I've been waiting for this Sat 20th Jul, i.e. 2 years later. But it's been soooo cloudy, as you say.

[Airconvent]

Good Luck Gavin! You will have enough for stop-motion animation

[starfinder]

A bit of a delay, but I've finally completed the updated .gif animation, increasing it from a 2-frame animation to a 3-frame animation a year later. It took me quite a long time to do the croppings and rotations exactly, to get 3 properly aligned frames.

Here it is, a 3-frame .gif animation clearly showing the motion of Barnard's Star over a 3 year period in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The dates the images were taken were:
20 July 2011 (1243 UTC);
20 July 2012 (1215UTC); and
21 July 2013 (1256UTC).
It was too cloudy on 20 July 2013 and so I could only get faint images of the stars then, but I managed to get clear images on the following day: it's more than near enough.

All images were taken through my Meade LX-90 8" SCT and my Canon EOS 60D dSLR, from Singapore city centre. Exact same pieces of equipment used throughout.

If the animation does not show on your screen at all, try another browser or display the page on a PC.

If the animation does not fit the screen completely, click on this link for a separate display:
http://img10.picoodle.com/i58g/starfind ... _u8s7b.gif

[antares2063]

Excellent stuff Gavin, thanks! 3 yrs of hard work and records!

[jiahao1986]

The animation is amazing. Seriously not many people have accomplished this. Congrats!