Exoplanet Watch — How to Contribute
Request an Exoplanet Observation
Exoplanet Watch partners with the MicroObservatory's DIY Planet Search to obtain robotic telescope observations of transiting exoplanets for Exoplanet Watch participants who do not have their own telescope. MicroObservatory, managed by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, is generously sharing 10 years of archived transiting exoplanet observations with us so that you can participate in Exoplanet Watch.
How to Get Started | How to Observe | Request an Exoplanet Observation | How to Analyze Your Data | How to Submit Your Data | Getting Started, Troubleshooting, and Problem Solving
Submit your email address below to check out a night's observation of an exoplanet transit taken by a robotic telescope. Once you have this data, follow the How to Analyze Your Data and How to Submit Your Data instructions from the links in the menu above.
To avoid overloading the system, we have a built-in waiting period. Currently, you can request data once every 2 days (48 hours). If you don't receive your data within a few minutes, please check your spam folder. The system might also be temporarily down. See the status and/or notify the team in the #data-requests Slack channel.
What’s In a Name?
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Where do the names of the exoplanets come from? What does the “b” mean?
Exoplanets are named after the telescope or survey that found them. The first exoplanet detected in a planetary system is given the name of the star it orbits, followed by a letter b. The next exoplanet in the system would be c, then d, etc. For example, exoplanet Kepler-16 b orbits the star Kepler-16.
Here's a link that explains more: How do Exoplanets get their Names?
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EXOTIC
The EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code, or EXOTIC, is our free software that allows you to turn a series of telescope images of transiting exoplanets into light curves. Start with the Beginner Tutorial the first time you use it, then use the Standard version of EXOTIC to process your own data and make your own light curves.
The name of the exoplanet you're studying can be found in the README file that accompanies the data you are given. The name of the star it orbits is the same as the name of the exoplanet, without the "b" at the end. For example, exoplanet Kepler-16 b orbits the star Kepler-16.
When you check out data, the observation is yours to keep as long as you want. We'll pause sharing it with anyone else for a limited time, like a "proprietary period" in professional astronomy. Afterwards, it will be released to others. At the end of this waiting period, if you've downloaded/copy the data, it is still yours, but we will simply put our copy back into circulation for others to checkout. You can still continue to process your data and upload your results at any time.
The exoplanet you will be studying is randomly selected for you, so you can't request data of a specific exoplanet. Remember there are several different ways to get exoplanet data, and you do not need your own telescope.
As with any astronomical observation, issues can arise, e.g., some nights are clear and some nights are cloudy. We can't guarantee that the data set you get will be from a clear night. If you get what you think is a cloudy data set, try to process it anyway. Even partially cloudy data sets can provide valuable results. If the sky is completely clouded over the entire dataset, come back after the waiting period and request another data set. You may also report it in our #data-requests Slack channel. Hopefully your next observation will be from a clearer night, but remember that this is real, authentic data, complete with all possible issues.
Your data set will include 2-4 images with "darks" in the filename. If the darks files aren't in a separate folder, please move them to a folder and name that folder "darks." If they're in a folder called "cal," please rename the "cal" folder "darks."
If you're having trouble finding the name of your exoplanet or the name of your target star, start by reading the README file that comes with your dataset. If that doesn't work, post the name of your first data file on our Slack, and our team can help you with the name of your exoplanet and target star.
If you have questions or concerns, please contact us.
EXOTIC, or EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code, our data-reduction software, is a free program that allows you to turn your telescope images into light-curve data — data that can be submitted to AAVSO.
