[rustigsmed (Russell)]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

AstroartV5 has a photometric module which works very well....
The book you're looking for is
"A practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis" by Brian D Warner, Springer, 2006.
A cooled mono CCD is the recommended weapon of choice.

thanks for the info Ken appreciated, i'll order that book off fishpond and look into Astroart I guess there is no avoiding getting a cooled mono.

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

Russell,

That sounds like a great endeavor. I can't help with advice but I do have a suggestion. With the gear you will need for exoplanets you could also do asteroid occultation timings. There is really a lot yet to learn about our own solar system and most asteroids have not had their sizes measured directly. This is an area where amateurs can really contribute and where you aren't in 'competition' with professionals. It's likely you will only have a candidate event every week or so, so the rest of the time you can get on with your exoplanet search.

http://www.occultations.org.nz/
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/iotandx.htm

Some software you may want to look at

http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/occult4.htm
http://www.occultwatcher.net/

Thanks David, that doesn't sound too time consuming in terms of observational time, which is of interest. As like everyone i'm time and good weather poor and I also image. I thought that you needed video setup for recording occultation measurements

Originally Posted by tonybarry

Hi Russell,

I would second David's suggestion.

Probably the best reference would be Jacquie's excellent How-To-Do Occs PDF, available here:-

http://www.occultations.org.nz/videotime/manual.htm

Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG

Thanks Tony - i'll have a look into it - although I think I have skimmed over it in the past.

One equatorial mount just doesn't seem enough these days! I sometimes think I should have purchased two NEQ6's rather than one EQ8 however without a permanent setup it would be a fair juggle.