I've recieved this question a few times:

I want to make a custom Pulsar Map and saw your Mapping Editor. Where did you get the values from the Pulsar Stars or how can i get these values (distance; z-coord; degrees; period)

Rather than continuing to address via email I am going to add resources and snippets from email conversations here until I can save up enough time/money to fix this properly.

One of the main reasons I have not implemented more customization yet is because it is fairly easy to do the calculations by hand, but first you need to specify how you want to calculate changes in the original 14 pulsars.

1. simple interpolation between the original measurements and the current data. This is quick and easy and results in a map which more closely resembles the original map. I have used the this interpolation spreadsheet to do this in the past: pulsar map interpolation method

2. Use the most current measurements and derivatives to calculate data for a given date. Although I think this is more accurate, the original data was actually pretty far off of reality so maps come out looking pretty different. For this use the integration spreadsheet: pulsar map itegration method

I will post more in comments below as I dig it out of my email archives.

With thanks to the following for keeping the conversation going (in no particular order):

• Reilly Scull
• Jason Cihelka
• Tom Riecken
• Christopher Baan
• Dillon Thomison
• Nico Schrott
• Mike G

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.

​​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.

I have a long lasting question about how to determine the angle from the line to the galactic center using the data. Please help!

from Prithwis Das via email:

I actually need some help with a couple more facts in order to proceed.
Tell me about your computation of distance (ratio of A* distance), z-coor, and degrees from A*.
Also, please specify what is A*.

Some questions I came away with from Johnston Archive article "Reading the Pioneer/Voyager Pulsar Map"

1. Pulsar distances and angles from galactic center as indicated on the map and as measured more recently are quite different in some cases. Is this because we have more accurately measured the values, or are pulsars really zipping around that quickly? Put another way, how much uncertainty is there in the measurements included on the original map?

2. I believe the pulsar map represents distance from Earth as well as the z-coordinate perpendicular to the galactic plane. How is this done exactly? Does the line represent true distance with z-coordinate marked from the end, or is the line a projection of the distance vector onto the galactic plane with the z-coordinate then added to the end of the line?

I sent an email to [email protected] in 2014 July but never got a response.

When entering values manually, if you want a bit of fantasy and map a pulsar too far away, it will get out of the frame : that's sad. I hope you can do something to fix this !