Exoplanets section of BAA

Forums Exoplanets Proposal for a BAA Exoplanets Section Exoplanets section of BAA

#579324
Dr Paul Leyland
Participant

An excellent idea in my opinion.

A decent number of exoplanet transits are in range of amateur equipment, as indicated by the continuing acknowledgements by Tabby Boyajian et al. to AAVSO observers.  Another example is

which can  be found at  http://www.tacandeobservatory.com/p/act.html

As noted, it is surely possible for amateurs to discover new exoplanets by the transit method.  All you need is dedication, good fortune and to be able to perform photometry to an accuracy of 0.003 magnitudes or better.  Despite the attention of the professionals, Kepler has only examined a small fraction of the sky and GAIA makes only a few dozen observations (at best) of any given star.

Disclaimer: I’ve a vested interest in the link given above because there’s a fair chance I’ll be purchasing the Tacande Observatory.