[Baa-ebulletin 00541] Search for Planets Around Detached Eclipsing Systems

[BAA electronic bulletins service]

8th December 2010
One of the BAA VSS sister organisation, Variable Stars - South, headed by Dr. Tom Richards, have recently launched a project to attempt to find extra-solar planets around other stars from eclipse timings.  This is a long term project but those equipped with a CCD camera on their telescope may care to look at the project details at www.variablestarssouth.org > Research Projects > SPADES.

In addition, Tom also appends the following note:-

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Thomas Richards 
To: vss-members at googlegroups.com 
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 2:42 AM
Subject: [VSS-members] More SPADES Targets


Hi all

We have now issued the third tranche of SPADES target systems, up to RA 7h and suitable for observation through February. That brings the total of targets for observing up to 22. Many are equatorial, making them suitable for our northern colleagues.

We are hoping that many more observers with CCD experience will join this project. The basic approach to observing is just to get a good time series on an eclipse that's going to occur close to your meridian, close to midnight - so you get a full eclipse profile. It's a long-term project rather than night-after-night  - wait until you get a suitably placed eclipse one night, and observe it.

All information you need is on our www.variablestarssouth.org website. Research Projects > SPADES. There you will find a project specification, science case, and observing/reporting requirements. Linked you'll find a table of data on the stars, and another table of comp star data. You can also download  a data table for EB_min (from http://members.shaw.ca/bob.nelson/software1.htm) , which is the best way to find information on eclipses visible from your site.

If you have any questions or want to discuss the project and your work, please note our website has a forum dedicated to this project.

Cheers,

Tom Richards

I do hope some of our members will be tempted to join in this interesting project and if you need any help do not hesitate to contact me.

Roger Pickard, Director VSS