[Aavso-photometry] TrES-1 exoplanet transit observations featuredon Sky & Telescope website

[Arne Henden]

Greg Crawford wrote:
> A great achievement Tonny!
> 
> Obviously a lightcurve was the means of detection in this instance. Does this
> mean that the detection of star "wobble" has faded into the background as a
> means of detection, or is it just that this latter method requires a large
> telescope and a relatively nearby star?
> 
Yes, nice light curve, even in its preliminary stage of reduction.
A total of 6 exoplanets (if you believe the 4 OGLE cases) have been
found through the transit method; a hundred have been found through
radial velocity.  So "wobble" has not faded into the background.
In fact, it is still the preferred method.  However, using photometry
means you can target a thousand stars simultaneously with a wide-field
system, and use small telescopes to boot, so has a far greater chance
of success (as long as you can remove the "chaff" of objects that
mimic the photometric signature of a transit).  The transitsearch
folks have a nice method of involving amateurs - use the known planets
and give ephemerides of when an eclipse/transit might occur.  Then
just observe at the right time and see if you can see a dip.  Much easier than
discovery of the planet in the first place!  TrES-1 is already on
their web site with predicted transits.  Next good one here is in
about three weeks, so I'll give it a shot (since at 11th magnitude
I can actually find suitable comp stars in my small field of view!).
In the meantime, I'll see if I can't calibrate the field.
Arne
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