NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Additional error found in H.O. 249
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2009 Oct 09, 13:47 -0700
From: Paul Hirose
Date: 2009 Oct 09, 13:47 -0700
One navigational star, alpha Centauri, has a proper motion of 3.7 arc seconds per year. By now it has moved 1.5' with respect to the coordinate system of the 1985 table. Arcturus is another one with a large proper motion, 2.3"/year. Since 1985 it has moved .9'. However, most of the change in the tabulated positions between 1985 and today is due to precession. That affects the celestial pole, and therefore the whole SHA/dec coordinate system. Nutation and annual aberration have lesser effects, and these are periodic or quasi periodic. They don't keep acting in the same direction over long time spans as precession does. (Strictly speaking, precession is also periodic, but its period is about 25,000 years.) The naked eye star with the largest proper motion is 61 Cygni A, 5th magnitude, moving 5.3"/year. Barnard's Star, 10th magnitude, has the largest proper motion of all, 10.4"/year. Its transverse velocity (km/s at right angles to the line of sight) is unexceptional, not even making the top 150 list. But the star is only 6 light years away. The proper motions of many stars are obvious and even measurable with amateur equipment nowadays. -- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList+@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---