Format

The report can be a standard format like a PASA paper:

http://www.publish.csiro.au/?nid=138

Abstract

Modify existing project description.

Introduction

The why. Why should we study exoplanets via photometry? What are the limitations, what are the benefits.
Different techniques of studying exoplanets - doppler etc. Why photometry is a feasable alternative.

For an "official" IAU listing of exoplanets look at:
http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/boss/planets.html

The discoveries most relevant are the transit and microlensing lists - both techniques use photometry.

From project description:
"INTRODUCTION The study of extrasolar planets (exoplanets) advances understanding of the formation and evolution of planetary systems and the search for extraterrestrial life. Exoplanets can be found and detected using photometry to measure the temporary drop in stellar brightness due to the (periodic) transit of the exoplanet in front of its star, as long as the orbit of the exoplanet is within an appropriate angle to our line of sight. Current professional surveys detecting exoplanets using transit and radial-velocity (Doppler wobble) techniques can benefit from photometry done by students and advanced amateur astronomers that find, confirm or add to knowledge about new exoplanets: http://www.transitsearch.org/"

1 page.

Theory

The technical side. Maths/physics behind photometry. Optics?
How photometry is done, including some mention of the hardware side of things.
Information on the telescope (hardware)
Information on software used to process images.
Information on the candidate star (in this case)
Lightcurve (maybe fourier analysis? mention - see Austnet:Freespace for data)

From Brad:
"This is based on calculating the telescope's limiting mFRagnitude and signal to noise using software packages that already exist on the web, for example: *Going to need to think about this one, looks tough"
http://www.tass-survey.org/richmond/signal.shtml

You can also compare the Mt Kent scope in terms of aperture, field of view and pixel scale to current search programs (as outlined for example at transitsearch.org)
All of this can be a compact and well-defined exercise with a succinct write-up. On the other hand, tackling the real data may well take too much time, even with IRIS.

Other websites of possible interest:
http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/ccd/manual/ - ccd observing manual
http://www.aavso.org/news/gj436.shtml - example of type of science that can be done"

From project description:

"METHOD This project involves photometry of a known transiting exoplanet from the list at:
http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/boss/planets.html or from exoplanet discovery announcements (e.g.):
http:///www.transitsearch.org
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm
http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/news/article_1347.asp
http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/news/article_1403.asp
This project will verify that robotic photometry using Mt Kent Observatory can contribute to future exoplanet studies."

1 page

Observations

This is going to be the tough one. Since there are no actual observations, maybe some expected observations if the project was to go ahead.
Existing data on hd189733 regarding its photometry? - this is what we would expect to see?
Mention existing lightcurve- results should match this.

















http://www.citebase.org/fulltext?format=application%2Fpdf&identifier=oai%3AarXiv.org%3Aastro-ph%2F0702156



1 page

Results

Once again, a tough one. The post-processing of the data, how it would be processed, and what we would like the results to be.
How the software is used.
Maybe mention an error - if data falls within this error (compare to known photometry of star/planet) then it is feasable, if not, then isolate where the error might be and suggest a fix
Light curve
Extract a function if possible - alg&calc I



1 page

Discussion

Discuss the results, was it a good result?
Where changes could be made.
Expected outcomes for different equipment.

No idea how to discuss this!

From project description:
"DISCUSSION The project will be written up as an electronically prepared (e.g. powerpoint) “poster paper” (in lieu of a seminar) and as an electronic (e.g. word) written report formatted as for papers in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia www.publish.csiro.au/?nid=138 "

Poster yes, easy, discussion, still nfi.

Poster Template:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/posteradvice.htm

1 page

Conclusion

Did it work? did it not work?
We can assume in this case it will work, because hd189733, the 20", acquisition software and processing software are purpose built for this task.

1 page

References

Add to this as references are used.

Born again.

If I was christian, I would call this a ressurection. Thankfully I'm not religous.

This project has been restarted as a feasability study. From my understanding I am to continue with this project as if it was to go ahead, but at the point where the data is to be collected the data is to be assumed. The project then will continue as if the correct data was acquired and all processes/results will be formalised.

Mt Kent Axis cam

Mt Kent has a great public online cam.

Posters and other stuff

Currently researching posters. I would like to put as much information as possibe on the poster, but not creating something so busy that it cant be read. This is where the courses Web Publishing and Graphical User Interface Design (or whatever it's called this week) will come in handy. The trick is to grab attention firstly, make sure people stay interested, and keep the information in a steady flow without having the reader swamped with information.

I'd like to make it informative so that everyone can read it, whether they be a school student, adult interested in astronomy, or a professional. I believe I can succeed in this considering the topic is a bit fringe.

I'll possibly use a washed (watermark?) out image of a star and nearby planet (artist's impression) which I hope to create myself - as the background. Brown edges, multiple panes each describing a seperate issue. The left side panel (possibly running down the entire poster will contain all data on the planet in human readable form. This will satisfy the constraint of having all data there if necessary. The panes will follow in a logical order of the process, such as research, equipment, data acquisition, processing of data, results, summary. Of course, an execuitive summary style introdiction (possibly the real introduction).

Note: include 51Peg.

Other stuff...This project is starting to come together, despite the lack of data...in fact, the data is close to becoming one of the minor parts.
Once the data comes in, the light curve will be processed, results of this will be documented, and the writup will start. Realistically I expect to spend maybe 20 hours on the project once the data is in.

Once I cash up and purchase my own decent scope, I reckon I'll be doing more of this.

Latest chances for transit

Here's the next transits for october/november/december: Transits
The entries in bold red are the final list. I have to use a planetarium app to make sure these are viewable at that time, and closer to the time I will be looking at weather forcasts. I really need this data by the start of december, otherwise december/january are going to be rather busy months.

As for the trial run with the images found on another site, I think I screwed up. The laptop went into the shop yesterday (again) and I left the images on it. I believe a backup was done earlier, so lets see how long it takes me to find the images on the server :\

Iris Tutorial

Nothing has been done for the last month or so. The telescope was not available last time, so the data wasn't collected.

I have however studied the Iris photometry tutorial, and it seems to be a relatively simple process. I have some images taken last year of the star, so I will use them to practice on.

Task for this week - W/S 14 August

Start introduction.
Research a little more on the subject.
Research techniques.

First chance to view transit

Robotic telescope should be ready by Science Week - 14-08 to 18-08
First chance to view transit 23-08

Start transit: 2453970.99 2006 8 23 11 49 21 49
Mid-transit: 2453971.11 2006 8 23 14 45 00+1 45
End transit: 2453971.24 2006 8 23 17 41 03+1 41

Possible Transit?

Thanks to Transitsearch, I may have found some possible transit times. I should be requesting this for late august/early september.

Complete page

Possible transits

Transits to be perused and matched with applicable time for telescope on Mt Kent.
Queensland is UTC +10, so minus 10 from the time and the one that fits between approximately 9pm to 4am will be a candidate.
Use "The Sky" to find the appropriate match.

Update of possible transits for August and September 2006

Hmm...a little too low methinks:



















Lowest angle to view should be 20 degrees.

Useful Links

While I think of it, might be worthwhile adding these to the blog so all of the links are centralised here.

This project involves photometry of a known transiting exoplanet from the list at:

http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/boss/planets.html

http:///www.transitsearch.org

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/news/article_1347.asp

http://skyandtelescope.com/printable/news/article_1403.asp

IRIS

IRIS: "An astronomical images processing software."
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

Photometry Tutorial here.

...looks pretty straightforward...I wonder what the catch is :)

Tasks for this week - W/S 7 August

Last week was a disaster, let's try again...

Results from last week:
Data on Star and Planet below.
Have installed IRIS, haven't completed any tutorials as yet (today)
Period found, transit not found.
Skimmed sites, further reading today.
Write introduction.

Data for HD189733 and HD189733b

HD189733

Coordinate: 20h 00m 43.7133s, +22 42 39.070 (2000)
Originally detected in October 2005 using radial velocity measurement by Bouchy at the Haute-Provence Observatory in France.
Spectral type: G5 ,Mag: B 8.7 V 7.5 - similar colour and density to our sun.
Sp. Type: K1-K2
pi (mas): 51.94

d (pc): 19.25
m_v (mag): 7.67
B-V (mag): 0.932
T_eff (K): 5050 +/- 50
M_v (mag): 6.25
L (L_sol): -
log(g) (CGS): 4.53 +/- 0.14
M_1 (M_sol): 0.82 +/- 0.03
R (R_sol): 0.76 +/- 0.01
log(R'HK): -
P_rot (d): ~11
Vsini (km/s): 3.5 +/- 1
Age (Gyr): -
[Fe/H]: -0.03 +/- 0.04

(Metal Rich)-qq

Images

HD189733b - the planet
Mass:1.154 M(jupiter)
Orbital period 2.219 +/- 0.0005 day
Inclination (deg): 85.3 +/- 0.1
Radius ratio: 0.172 +/- 0.003
Planet radius (R_Jup) 1.26 +/-0.03
Planet density (g/cm^3) 0.75 +/- 0.08
Semimajor axis: (AU) 0.313
Orbital Period (years): 0.00607412
Minimum Mass: 366
Eccintricity: 0
Discoverer Name: Bouchy, et al
Announcement Date: Oct 5 2005


"Mazeh et al. think that they see a neat correlation between the period of transiting hot Jupiters and their masses. The dominant feature of this correlation is that very close-in "Very Hot Jupiters" are all heavier than normal hot Jupiters. Subsequently, HD149046 fell squarely below the proposed correlation, while HD189733 was spot on it, so the jury is still out." - http://obswww.unige.ch/~pont/Transitsin2005.htm

Seen in Vulpecula, at this time of year rising approximately east, around 7:30pm.

"The exosolar planet HD189733b was detected in Oct. 2005 using radial velocity measurement by F. Bouchy at the Haute-Provence Obs. in France. The planet has an orbital period of 2.219 days and a mass of 1.15 Jupiters. The parent star, HD189733, has a mass of 0.82 solar masses and is a stellar class G5, very similar in color and temperature to our own Sun. HD189733 is located in the constellation Velpecula approx. 60 light years from Earth. The graph below plots the brightness, magnitude, of the star over the course of 4.8 hours. As the exosolar planet passed between its parent star and Earth, its shadow diminished the intensity of the star by a factor of ~0.4%"

http://starkey.ws/exo-solar_planets.htm




Notes:
1 AU = 1.49597870691·10¹¹ m 1 year = 365.25 days = 31557600 s 1 M_E = 5.9742·10²⁴ kg
http://www.seikei.ac.jp/obs/disc/hd189733.htm
"The Sky - Student Edition"
Bouchy et al. 2005
Hipparcos

Tasks for this week - W/S July 31

Research HD189733, including an image.
Find period of planet, and when it transits.
Install and complete tutorials for Iris.
Read sites: transitsearch, PASA, astrosurf/qmips32

Getting started.

After a little discussion, HD 189733 was suggested as the best target for this project.

Full article: The Best Transiting Exoplanet Yet