Results of Optical Timing Measurements of the Crab Nebula Pulsar

Abstract

Absolute time of arrival measurements were made of the optical pulses from the Crab pulsar between September 1969 and April 1970; they were corrected to the solar system barycentre. The fit to the timing data indicates that the slowdown is due to magnetic dipole radiation, but there are significant deviations indicating the presence of small fluctuations and major jumps. There is no evidence of the quasi-sinusoidal behaviour reported by Arecibo. These measurements allowed an integrated light curve to be constructed with high precision.