Hi guys,
I detected my first exoplanet (hd 189733 b) and made a video about it showing step by step how I did it. I thought it could be useful for the people interested in the topic or already starting with transit photometry.
The star has an apparent magnitude of 7.7 and the exoplanet produces a drop of 2.8% during almost 2 hours.
I used a tele-photo lens (the Pentacon 135 mm f 2.8), a CMOS camera (ZWO ASI 120 MM) and an equatorial mount (Skywatcher EQ3-2)
I also have a dual-axis motor drive, but a simple one that only controls the right ascension would be enough.
I bought most of the items second-hand from Ebay and I spent around 300 euros.
To set up the tele-photo lens and the camera I have a couple of guide rings and in order to focus the tele-photo lens, I have to separate it 33 mm from the camera by using for example 2 M42 extension rings, one of them 28 mm long and the other one 5 mm.
Now, the steps to detect the exoplanet are the following:
1. Find out when is the exoplanet going to transit the star with the
Exoplanet Transit Database.
2. With a program called SharpCap, take for example 5-second
exposures with a gain of 1 for 3 hours.
3. Once the transit has finished, with a program called ‘AstroImageJ’
open all the images, select the target star and for example a couple
of reference stars, and perform multi-aperture photometry to
detect the light curve.
I think it is better explained with a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHCp...ZinoGtUGEOankw