Unanswered Questions for ATNF

[7yl4r]

Below is an email I sent 2018-03 to [email protected] with questions that went unanswered. I am still interested in finding the answers but am unsure where to turn.

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​​Salutations!

Apologies if this is not the proper channel for this sort of inquiry, but...

I am looking for advice on how best to calculate the time-derivative of pulsar motion in galactic coordinates. That is: d(XX)/dt, d(YY)/dt, and d(ZZ)/dt.

I ask this because I would like to calculate historical pulsar positions in galactic coordinates over the last ~100yrs.

(1). Are pulsars moving fast enough for this motion to even be noticeable? (2). What would you guess as an upper bound for the distance a pulsar might travel in ~100 years?

Continuing under the assumption that the motion in this time is not negligible:

The parameter option documentation lists proper motion in RA/Dec as well as in ecliptic lat/lon (quoted below). I have a rough understanding of how to convert these to galactic, but I hope you can advise me as to (3) which of these I should start from in order to minimize uncertainties.

PMRA: Proper motion in the right ascension direction (mas/yr) PMDec: Proper motion in declination (mas/yr)

PMElong: Proper motion in the ecliptic longitude direction (mas/yr) PMElat: Proper motion in ecliptic latitude (mas/yr)

Thanks for your time, ~Tylar

PS: thank you for the service you provide. The ANTF catalogue has helped me greatly in my amateur pursuits and I believe it has indirectly helped inspire interest in space science and pulsars.