Detect Exoplanets By Yourself With The Cheapest Equipment

[alfa015]

Hi guys,

 

I detected my first exoplanet - hd 189733 b - and made a video about it showing step by step how I did it. I thought it could be useful for the people interested in the topic or already starting with transit photometry.

 

The star has an apparent magnitude of 7.7 and the exoplanet produces a drop of 2.8% during almost 2 hours.

 

I used a tele-photo lens (the Pentacon 135 mm f 2.8 ), a CMOS camera (ZWO ASI 120 MM) and an equatorial mount (Skywatcher EQ3-2)

 

I also have a dual-axis motor drive, but a simple one that only controls the right ascension would be enough.

 

I bought most of the items second-hand from Ebay and I spent around 300 euros.

 

To set up the tele-photo lens and the camera I have a couple of guide rings and in order to focus the tele-photo lens, I have to separate it 33 mm from the camera by using for example 2 M42 extension rings, one of them 28 mm long and the other one 5 mm.

 

Now, the steps to detect the exoplanet are the following:

 

                                   1. Find out when is the exoplanet going to transit the star with the Exoplanet Transit Database.

 

                                   2. With a program called SharpCap, take for example 5-second exposures with a gain of 1 for 3 hours. 

 

                                   3. Once the transit has finished, with a program called ‘AstroImageJ’ open all the images, select the target star and for example a couple of reference stars, and perform multi-aperture                                                                   photometry to detect the light curve.

 

I think it is better explained with a video: 

Edited October 12, 2018 by alfa015

[alfa015]

Anybody interested?