[Aavso-photometry] RE: [TransitSearch] hd 80606 campaign update

[Shankland, Paul D CDR U.S. Naval Observatory]

Hi Frank - This is interesting, cool stuff; I am not sure this is a flux, but it could be there. Does need more look IMO. My first run on your points (albeit not from a reduced set - can you post such numbers? That's important), and I show only noise. Have you done an LSQ, or any other fit of the possible curve to feel it out? A spreadsheet? Did you do any data reduction in the Starlight Express? If not, you might consider MIRA, IRIS, or AIP4WIN (or IRAF if you like that learning curve -grin-). You might see a trend, or not, more clearly. I would caution that to maintain rigor, darks, flats and filters become very important for all sequences. I know there is a crowd to argue about, in particular, filters, but for a broad spectrum of reasons, the data needs to have all those run before it's publishable. If you care not about publishing, then you have another matter - but the rigor should be there to produce the science.  That will help with your noise floor and maybe a curve would not be hidden. I'd strongly encourage flats, darks and filtering for any collections, as a fundamental part of the collection on a target, to have them be of best use. It is fun in any case, to surmount the challenges of flats, darks, and the pain of filtering ... Best of Luck! And keep having fun!
Paul
---
CDR Paul "Happy" Shankland, USN
Head, Plans & Requirements
U.S. Naval Observatory
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-----Original Message-----
From: transitsearch-bounces at ucolick.org [mailto:transitsearch-bounces at ucolick.org]On Behalf Of FrankJ12 at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 1:40
To: laugh at ucolick.org; transitsearch at ucolick.org; tcastellano at mail.arc.nasa.gov; aavso-photometry at aavso.org
Subject: Re: [TransitSearch] hd 80606 campaign update


 
 
    Dear all -
 
     I have posted my lightcurves of HD 80606 for a possible transit of an extrasolar planet on Feb. 25, 2005 window event.
 
     You can see at: http://hometown.aol.com/frankj12/funstuffindex.html
 
     The size has been reduced to fit on the webpage. I hope you can make it out.
 
      The lightcurves are just preliminary results. In Fig. 1, there is a slight dip during the transit window when comparing with the non-transit time and HD 80607 was a comparison star. You can see the pattern if you look carefully
 
      In Fig 2, you will see the brightness of both comparison star HD 80607 and a check star GSC 3431:892. The lightcurve is pretty much with 0.03 magnitude scattered light but stable throughout the run.
 
       In Fig 3, again, there is a slight dip when comparing with a check star GSC 3431:892. 
 
       I used the Starlight Xpress software where I can choose the photometry aperture. The aperture covers 9 square pixels. All readings were taken from the raw images without any processing. No dark field and no flat field. The stars were in the same region in all images.
 
       My best guess that the transit seems promising but not yet conclusive. The amplitude seems like closely to 0,015 magnitude in red light. The transit predicted to end around Feb. 26th at 5:42 UT. It looked like the transit was still going even at 7:00 UT. But the next night, it was closely to 0.02 magnitude brighter. 
 
        More observations are needed and I would say that HD 80606 is worth for another campaign for a closer look. Also, I would like to see other observers' results.
 
        I would like to post them at the AAVSO website.
 
        More later...
 
        Frank J Melillo
        ALPO Member
        Holtsville, NY