Proxima Centauri

[NGC 1365]

I Originally tracked down Proxima Centauri back in 2016, and had another go at it around mid 2018. I remember that when preparing observing charts for the area, there was conflicting information out there as to which star was actually Proxima centauri and to top it off, some charts showed a few stars which were not actually there. After both observations I remember feeling unsatisfied that I had actually seen Proxima. There was an 11 mag star close to the area but not shown on the charts except for one, an AAVSO chart from May 2018, but that chart showed two other stars (brighter ) which were not there. This last Friday I downloaded a new chart from the AAVSO and set out once again to see if I could Identify it. Once again, the location of Proxima conflicted with that shown on the chart. This time, the AAVSO chart showed Proxima roughly 1 arc minute south east of were I could actually see an 11 something magnitude star, the spot were the 2018 chart showed it to be. There is a disclaimer at the bottom of the Proxima chart which states that due to it's high proper motion the star is no longer at it's charted J 2000 position. So that is the cause of the discrepancy. I was relying on information which is over two decades old now, and in the intervening years proxima's high proper motion has shifted it to were I saw it on Friday night. It's the closest star to us at 4.25 light year's, variable with a mean magnitude of 11.2 V and situated in a dense star field 2.2 degrees south west of it's sibling pair Alpha centauri AB, with an orbital period of 550,000 years and is about 0.2 Ly's from the pair.
As much of a hassle as it was to track down, it was worth it to glimpse the nearest star to earth other than the sun.
Here is a chart I made from a Wikisky image. Proxima's location is roughly were the X is. The circled object is proxima at the time the DSS2 image was taken and looks close to were the AAVSO chart for J2000 shows it.
Equipment used was an 18 inch F4.5 Dob and 12mm ES 92 degree eyepiece and Coma corrector at 191x

[helicon]

Congratulations NGC1365 (Ivan) on winning the TSS Visual Report of the Day for your fine observation of Proxima Centauri!

[turboscrew]

Annoying situation, but no more a problem to you, I guess.
And congrats on the VROD!

[Ylem]

Congratulations, Great report

[Bigzmey]

Nice catch Ivan! Have you tried any astronomical apps? SkySafari does a good job on tracking stuff that moves.

[Makuser]

Hi Ivan. A suburb report from you on Proxima Centuari. And, conflicting sky charts can sometimes confuse the issue. Thanks for your work involved in zeroing the location in for us Ivan, and congratulations on winning the TSS VROD Award today.

[Piet Le Roux]

I have been in the Proxima Centauri hunt for a while now and have given up on getting any help from star maps. I use a 8" LX90ACF, Tele Vue 27mm Panoptic, Audiostar goto and Stallerarium. Stallarium has an option to setup eyepiece views and any rotation of the view by the type of telescope you using, in my case left and right is reversed. So what I will see is more or less this but with a lot more stars visible :

To to the right of proxima is a half circle of stars with a star more or less in its center, Thats my reference and by drawing a line from the center star to the one on the left of the half circle, viewing from its centre, it points to Proxima, about double the radius distance of the half circle away. There are a pair of stars, not visiable on Stallerarium, next to Proxima. I do a manual sync on Rigel Kent and then a goto to Proximas J2000.0 coordinates, I am then quite sure its in the centre of my view and by using the reference stars I can pinpoint it most of the time.

[NGC 1365]

Thanks for all the feedback and comments guys. The scale of the chart for anyone interested is just under half a degree. Thanks Piet Let Roux for sharing your observations and techniques for spotting Proxima.

[OzEclipse]

Great report Ivan.
I have often thought I should track this one down.

Congratulations on the VROD.

Joe

[John Baars]

Great report of the Proxima Centauri search.
Congratulations on the VROD!

[NGC 1365]

Thanks Joe and John. Joe, you should give it a go, it's placed well early to mid evening now, let us know how you go.

[Thefatkitty]

Well done on that Ivan; nice detective work! So close yet so hard to pick out, And congrats on the VROD, well deserved!

All the best,

[dagadget]

Well done on that Ivan; nice detective work! So close yet so hard to pick out, And congrats on the VROD, well deserved!

All the best,

Well done indeed that is something I would like to find as well someday.