Extra solar Planet Discovery

[TrevorW]

Could you detect a planet outside our solar system

If a Jupiter sized planet with an inner orbit passed in front of a Mag 0 star and you took images of this or other similar stars regualrly would you see a disk appear transiting that star all things considered.

http://www.astronomywa.net.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59:amateur-telescopes-find-extrasolar-planet&catid=63:discoveries&Itemid=57

[ngcles]

Hi Trevor,

The short answer is no because except in the very largest telescopes in the world, no star exhibits a visible/observable disc that is an actual image of its surface.

The disc/diffraction pattern we see when we look through an amateur-sized telescope (and indeed the vast majority of professional-class and size instruments) is an "Airy disc".

You can read about what that is and why it looks that way here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airy_disc

You may however be able to detect a drop in brightness of the star due to esentially, a shallow annular eclipse, as the exoplanet transit takes place. Such a drop in magnitude would be very slight (really tiny actually) and have to be detected photometrically. I'm not sure, but I seem to remember somewhere that some amateurs have in fact detected exo-planet transits in this way with large telescopes and CCD.

Having now read your link, that is exactly what happened -- and that is astonishing for a person who has been in amateur astronomy for almost 40 years. 30 years ago this would have been not merely beyond contemplation but completely "over the horizon" -- not even thought of as a fanciful possibility for an amateur to achieve.

A big thunbs-up and good on ya to them!!:thumbsup:


Best,

Les D

[TrevorW]

Thanks Les it just shows what amatuers can acheive considering

wishful thinking on my behalf although a number as you pointed out have been detected through imaging

another interesting site

http://exoplanet.eu/

[Rob_K]

Yes, amazing Les! There are quite a few amateurs in the field now, providing good CCD-based transit data. Here's a few links:

http://www.aavso.org/observing/programs/ccd/transitsearch.shtml

http://brucegary.net/AXA/x.htm

http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~microfun/


Cheers -

[rogerg]

Yeah, this is something I've been keen to get in to - extra solar planet observations. From my reading there's quite a few stars that can be observed to do "follow-up" on extra solar planets so it's only logical that given dedication and patients new ones can be detected by amateurs too.

All it takes is time.

Roger.