Optical timing observations of the Crab pulsar 1969-1979.
Abstract
Observations of the Crab pulsar, which were made at the 60 cm refractor of Hamburg Observatory, are discussed. The data acquisition system used in the observations is based on a PDP-8 minicomputer. The system had been designed for a scanning double star photometer. Attention is given to details of data acquisition procedures, instrumentation, data reduction, phase and frequency residual diagrams, the glitch in early 1975, a number of smaller glitches, frequency noise, and jumps in the frequency derivative. It is pointed out that even in the short span of one percent of its lifetime, the Crab pulsar has displayed several completely unpredicted activities, which may well be the clue to the understanding of neutron star structure.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series
- Pub Date:
- April 1981
- Bibcode:
- 1981A&AS...44....1L
- Keywords:
-
- Crab Nebula;
- Data Acquisition;
- Pulsars;
- Stellar Radiation;
- Stellar Structure;
- Data Reduction;
- Digital Computers;
- Minicomputers;
- Pulse Duration;
- Stellar Spectrophotometry;
- Tables (Data);
- Time Measurement;
- Astronomy