Download EXOPLANET OBSERVING FOR AMATEURS

CHAPTER 1 – COULD I DO THAT?
Figure 1.01. Knowing what to do makes a difference. Upper panel: my first light
curve of HD209458, made 2002 August 12. Lower panel: a recent light curve of XO1 made in 2006 (average of March 14 and June 1 transits).
During the past 5 years my capability has improved ~70-fold, and most of this is due
to improved technique. Although I now use a 14-inch telescope if I were to use the
same 10-inch that I used 5 years ago for my first exoplanet transit I could achieve in
one minute what took me 15 minutes to do back then. Some of this improvement is
due to use of a slightly improved CCD, and some is from use of a tip/tilt image
stabilizer, but most of the improvement is due to improved techniques for observing,
image processing and spreadsheet analysis. These are things that can be shared with
other amateurs in a book. That’s the book I wanted 5 years ago. You are now holding
such a book. It is based on 5 years of floundering and learning. It can save you from
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