In any case trevor, you said it is optically impossible for a land based amateur telescope to pick up a star which is incorrect further Mr. Whin didn't state that amateurs can visually sight a planet.
Brendan this is the first sentence of your response to me and I never said it was impossible for land based telescope to pick up a star
Sorry remember what the examiner say's about reading and re-reading a question
Point source is the heart of the matter here. When you record an image of a star and it appears as a round disk, you are not recording the actual disk of the star. The resultant disk is caused by guiding errors and the movement of atmosphere. We cannot image the Apollo landing sites with the largest telescopes on the planet. What hope do we have of imaging a transit event with the same telescopes? Nil. So this is most likely an optical error or dust mote not dealt with by the calibration frames.
39 Leonis is a binary star, it companion is a red dwarf 39 Leonis B. Red dwarf are usually smaller, cooler and the distance is 163AU away from A would account for any possible view on this occasion. I assume this a shot of only a few seconds and you may have captured the red dwarf behind the star. While using Planet Hunters I learn't that star that go behind another star can create varying intensities.
39 Leonis is a binary star, it companion is a red dwarf 39 Leonis B. Red dwarf are usually smaller, cooler and the distance is 163AU away from A would account for any possible view on this occasion. I assume this a shot of only a few seconds and you may have captured the red dwarf behind the star. While using Planet Hunters I learn't that star that go behind another star can create varying intensities.
The Hubble has a resolution of 0.05 arc seconds. The Hale 200 inch can do 1 arc second on earth.
For perspective on the current discussion here are some approximate angular sizes of various objects:
Moon 1800 arc seconds
Neptune 2.2 arc secs
Pluto 0.06 - 0.1 arc secs
Canopus 0.006 arc secs
Proxima Centauri 0.001 arc secs
An 8 inch telescope - refractor or reflector can resolve approximately 0.6 arc seconds in a theoretically perfect sky.
Therefore, even with the Hubble you can't get close to resolving the disc of a massive star so you will not get the disk of a much smaller rotating planet. Exoplanets are deduced, not observed, as a result of changes in star brightness.
and so neat
You dont even get that detail from a binary star only 4.5 light years away
