The human eye, even using a powerful telescope, cannot detect the flash of a pulsar such as the Crab.
Pulsars emitting visible light look like normal stars.
Powerful instruments are required to detect the flash. NASA studies this phenomenon and other curious deep-space events. One instrument used is the Burst and Transient Source Experiment , an instrument on board the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory , a NASA satellite. The Java Source Code. Back to Pulsar Model.