Time-Resolved Optical Observations of PSR 1509-58

Using time resolved 2-dimensional aperture photometry we have established that the optical candidate for PSR 1509-58 does not pulse. Our pulsed upper limits (m_V = 24.3 and m_B = 25.7) put severe constraints on this being the optical counterpart. Furthermore the colours of the candidate star are consistent with a main sequence star at a distance of 2-4 kpc. The probability of a chance coincidence with a normal star and the difficulty of explaining the lack of pulsed emission leads us to conclude that this object is an intermediate field star.