  SN 1987A offered a unique opportunity to detect a pulsar at the very
beginning of its life and to study its early evolution. Despite many searches
at radio and optical wavelengths, no pulsar has yet been detected. Details of a
recent search using the Parkes radio telescope are given. Limits on the X-ray,
optical and radio luminosity of a point source at the centre of SN 1987A place
limits on the properties of a central neutron star. However, neither these nor
the pulsar limits preclude the presence of a relatively slowly rotating neutron
star (P >~ 100 ms) with a moderate surface dipole magnetic field in SN 1987A.
Galactic studies suggest that a significant fraction of pulsars are born with
parameters in this range. In view of this, continued searches for a pulsar in
SN 1987A are certainly justified.

Astrophysics