On the Crab Proper Motion

Abstract

Owing to the dramatic evolution of telescopes as well as optical detectors in the last 20 yrs, we are now able to measure anew the proper motion of the Crab pulsar, after the classical result of Wyckoff and Murray (1977) in a time span 40 times shorter. The proper motion is aligned with the axis of symmetry of the inner Crab nebula and, presumably, with the pulsar spin axis.