Published December 8, 1983
| Version public
Journal Article
Searches for optical counterparts of the two millisecond pulsars
Abstract
The first millisecond pulsar, 1937+214, has given rise to much observational and theoretical excitement (reviewed in ref. 2). A 20th magnitude red object was proposed earlier as a possible optical counterpart, but we show here that this is not the case: this object is probably a giant star at a distance of 5–6 kpc. There is no evidence for an optical source brighter than the 23rd red magnitude at the improved optical position. We also present results of the search for the optical counterpart of the new millisecond pulsar 1953+290. A grid of astrometric offset stars for this source is given, and possibility of optical detection discussed.
Additional Information
© 1983 Macmillan Journals Ltd. Received 29 August; accepted 26 September 1983. We thank to Mr E. Harlan for taking the astrograph plates, Drs M. Lebofsky, G. Rieke, D. Cudaback and J. Middleditch for communicating results prior to publication and S. Kulkarni for stimulating discussions. We are greatly indebted to the staff of Lick Observatory for their help in the CCD observations, in particular to J. Miller, L. Robinson, R. Stover, T. Lauer, B. Alcott and W. Earthman. S.D. was a visiting student and H.S. a visiting astronomer at Kitt Peak National Observatory, which is operated by AURA Inc. under contract with NSF. This work was partly supported by NSF grant AST-81-16125 to H.S. and University of California graduate fellowship to S.D.Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 97349
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190723-091813861
Funding
- Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)
- NSF
- AST-81-16125
- University of California, Berkeley
Dates
- Created
-
2019-07-23Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field