A High Proper Motion Star

While comparing an image of Comet 2001 A2 LINEAR taken at Stony Ridge on July 15, 2001 with the same field taken at Palomar for the Sky Survey in 1954, I noticed one star had moved during that period. The star's apparent high proper motion indicates that it is a "nearby" star to our Solar System. -- Steve Brewster

<< Copyright (c) 1994, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Date August 7, 1954

 

 

 

<< Image made at Stony Ridge Observatory, July 15, 2001 of Comet 2001 A2 LINEAR .

High Proper-motion Star (epoch 2000.0)
22h 17m 24.63s
+15d 12' 06.6"
mag ~14.5

The Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars is a compilation of all known stars within about 25 parsecs (81.5 light-years) of the Sun. These stars are distinguished from the billions of others by their high proper motions and large stellar parallax. Upon checking the catalog, I found one Gliese star about 10 arc-minutes (2 image fields) north of the star indicated above. Called Gliese 852.1, both stars appear to have about the same proper motion and are moving in a parallel direction.

Questions arrise -

Is this a newly discovered high proper-motion star, not yet recognised?

Are these two stars related, i.e., do Gliese 852.1 and the star iamged at Stony Ridge form a gravitaionally bound double star?

Or do they share only a common motion on the sky?

Further investigations will include more research of the literature to determine the nature of Gliese 852.1 and the "new" star. In addition, observations six months apart are needed to determine the stellar parallax of the discovery star which can then be compared to the stellar parallax of Gliese 852.1.

...to be continued.