Proper motion of the Crab pulsar revisited

It has been suggested that the Crab pulsar's proper motion is aligned with the symmetry axis of the pulsar wind nebula. We have revisited this question, examining > 6 years of F547MWFPC2 chip 3 images to obtain a best-fit value of mu(*) = 14.9 +/- 0.8 mas yr(-1) at P. A. 278 degrees +/- 3 degrees. At 26 degrees +/- 3 degrees to the nebula axis, this substantially relaxes constraints on the birth kick of this pulsar. Such misalignment allows the momentum to be imparted over similar to 1 s timescales.