Colorado Space Grant Update
Western State College
Suzanne Taylor
September 9, 2011
Exoplanet transit light curves
Goals:
1. To provide students
with astronomical
observing and data
processing experience
2. To accurately
reproduce light curves
of known transiting
exoplanets
3. To confirm and
characterize light
curves of exoplanet
candidates
Current status

All instrumentation is in
place and operational




Camera
Autoguider
Filter wheel
Rough light curves have
been obtained
Rough light curve
Wasp-10b
Successes

Learned operational limits
of instrumentation


Stumbling blocks

informed target selection
→ better data
Student has gained
extensive experience in
telescope and associated
instrumentation operation
Poorly designed telescope
gears


numerous tracking/guiding
issues
Conflicting schedules,
broken ankle, cloudy
nights

Far less summer observing
than originally planned
The Future



Need to improve telescope gearing
Possibility of using better designed (but smaller) telescope
Once we can consistently reproduce known light curves
we’ll start looking at unconfirmed Kepler candidates
Testing out the
new filters