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Exoplanet XO6-b Transit, Matthew Paul

Exoplanet XO6-b Transit

Exoplanet XO6-b Transit, Matthew Paul

Exoplanet XO6-b Transit

Description

I was able to detect the light from the star XO6, 768 light years away, dim as a planet twice the size of our own Jupiter passed in front of it.

I did this from my backyard with common amateur equipment! The heavy blue line represents the "Best Fit" transit model from my data. The light colored points around this thick line are 3 exposure averages of the target star's brightness through the observation. The lines of dots on the bottom are check stars used to show that a passing cloud or some other anomaly are not at fault for the dim, and that it is actually from the planet passing in front its parent star. 

The equipment used was a Celestron 9.25" telescope, IMX432 mono cooled astronomical camera, Clear filter, and a GEM45 mount. There were 1,008 16second images captured and used for this multi-aperature  photomitry plot.

Guided with a ZWO OAG and a Starlight Express Lodenstar guide camera. Run through NINA and processed with AstroImageJ. 

The transit was prediction was sourced from http://var2.astro.cz/

I was an hour off in my math when converting the different time systems, so the transit happened an hour earlier than I had expected, though with luck I intentionally started recording an hour and a half early! 

Many thanks to my friend Brad for offering some insights based on his own experience detecting exoplanet transits and performing photometry. 
"A Practical Guide To Exoplanet Observing" by Dennis M Conti was heavily referenced in processing the data. 
"Exoplanet Observing For Amateurs" by Bruce L Gary was referenced heavily for the general ideas on process, goals, etc.

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Exoplanet XO6-b Transit, Matthew Paul