On the discovering of distant worlds

TEDxYouth@Göteborg - Mikael Ingemyr - Exoplanets

2012-01-18T09:48:00.001-08:00

Article in The Astrophysical Journal

2011-03-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

An article containing the data and analyses on WASP-12b from my work at RSI has now been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. A preprint is available here:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3078

The first author, T. Chan is an undergraduate student at MIT who also did research on exoplanets at The Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research last summer. I'm the second author of the article, a 20 year old swede who hasn't entered college yet. I really appreciate all the help and support I have received throughout this project, and I would especially like to thank Prof. Winn, my RSI research mentor (third author) and Mr. Sanchis-Ojeda (fifth author).

Now, please enjoy reading "The Transit Light Curve project. XIV. Confirmation of Anomalous Radii for the Exoplanets TrES-4b, HAT-P-3b, and WASP-12b" and I hope it will prove useful for future research in the ever-growing field of exoplanets!

RSI Paper

2010-12-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

The paper I produced on WASP-12b while at MIT this summer is now available for download (click the link to enjoy):

Precise Photometry of Transits and Occultations of the Exoplanet WASP-12b

It's been a great pleasure to work on WASP-12b and exoplanets in general the last two years of my life. I've learned a lot, to say the least, and I'm not lying when I say that these last years have been the best of my life.

It all started when Anders Nyholm, a former student at Rymdgymnasiet, gave a talk in Kiruna on when and how he was the first Scandinavian amateur astronomer to observe an exoplanet (HD209458b). That got me started on the Exoplanet road, and I haven't stopped yet.

In 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, there was an astronomy essay competition in all of the Nordic countries, in which I participated. I had originally planned on using the 12" Meade telescope in the Bengt Hultqvist-Observatory in Kiruna, but the prize of the competition was a trip to the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands and observing time at the Nordic Optical Telescope (2.6m) located there, which would be way more awesome (and meaningful) to use than the 12" in Kiruna, so I used that fact when I wrote my essay; Om sökandet efter nya världar.

I won the competition along with another Swede, a Norwegian girl, a Finnish dude, and an Icelandic young man. Apart from winning the trip and observing time, I also got an asteroid named after me; 12311 ingemyr. While at La Palma we made the proper observations and the conditions were perfect.

Once at home again I reduced the data and performed the analysis. I found that the exoplanet WASP-12b is likely to in fact be the very largest planet known in the Universe so far. The paper I wrote can be found here; New photometric measurements reveals WASP-12b as the largest exoplanet found. This was my "Projektarbete" in the last grade of high school.

I joined the competition Utställnignen Unga Forskare, the Swedish National Science and Technology Fair. Since the regional competition in Luleå was cancelled, I went straight to the finals in Stockholm, and there I won the most prestigious prize of them all; a ticket to the Research Science Institute at MIT.

While attending RSI at MIT, I continued to analyze more data on WASP-12b (that just happened to be laying around on some server at Harvard). The conclusions of my high school paper were confirmed by this, and I am now working on getting the whole thing published in a real scientific paper, like the Astrophysical Journal.

If you didn't download it before, here's another link to my RSI paper;
Precise Photometry of Transits and Occultations of the Exoplanet WASP-12b

This is likely the very last post I will ever make on this blog, as it was in the beginning made as a way for me to keep a logbook on my progress regarding my high school project. It's been a good time and it's been very rewarding to me in many, many ways. I would like to thank all of you who have helped me and supported me during this journey. See ya around!

WASP-12b is being devoured by its host star!

2010-05-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

Hubble has finally taken a look into the special case of WASP-12b. As my (and previous) observations has showed, WASP-12b is bigger than what it physically possible (according to the the models). A new paper by L. Fossati et al. (2010) shows that WASP-12b is so heavily deformed by the strong gravitational interaction (it makes one orbit in little more than one day, so it's extremely close to the star) and irradiance (it has a temperature of over 1500°C at the surface) from the star that it is actually loosing mass to it. This will lead to a situation where the planet is no more, in about 10 million years or so.

This fact was suggested by Li et al. (2010) in February, and it now been confirmed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Using UV spectrography, Hubble found many metals in the atmosphere, including sodium, tin, aluminum, magnesium, manganese, cobalt, iron and ytterbium (named after the Swedish town Ytterby, where it was discovered), and this metal-rich exosphere it actually much larger than the planet itself. Where my observation suggests that the planet has a radius of about 1.87 Jupiter radii, the different parts of the UV spectra (NUVA, NUVB and NUVC) observed by Hubble indicates a radius of 2.69±0.24RJ, 2.18±0.18 RJ and 2.66±0.22 RJ respectively. These elements will be caught in a a tug-of-war between the gravity of the planet and the gravity of the star...and the star will ultimately win. This stream of matter, which originated from the planet, is being absorbed by the star, and judging from the mass of the planet and the density of the stream, WASP-12b has about 10 million years left to say its last words. After that, WASP-12 (the star) is one metal rich planet-eater.

Might this be the ultimate fate of all Hot Jupiters?

I, Rickoid

2010-04-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Urban Dictionary has this to say about Rickoids:

"Participants of the Research Science Institute, formerly the Rickover Science Institute. Basically, what happens is a bunch of people apply to be part of RSI and get rejected. The leftovers are then called Rickoids."

RSI at MIT

2010-04-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

This week I published my findings on WASP-12b in the finals of Utställningen Unga Forskare, the swedish national science fair. About 100 students exhibited about 50 science-related projects. Several interesting lectures were given in the evenings and a field trip to the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) was conducted.

At the end of the week, an award ceremony was held to award the most ambiguous projects with diferent scholarships. I, with my project on the properties of WASP-12b, was awarded an invitation to the Research Science Institute (RSI) which will be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for six weeks this summer. The official website has this to say about the RSI:

"Each summer, 80 of the world's most accomplished high school students gather at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Research Science Institute (RSI). Invited students enjoy a six-week, cost-free program designed to kick-start their careers of leadership in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology.

Participants experience the entire research cycle from start to finish. They read the most current literature in their field, draft and execute a detailed research plan, and deliver conference-style oral and written reports on their findings.

RSI projects are open-ended and relevant, fitting into the larger work of the host laboratory. The experience gives many their first taste of work at the creative edge of science."

From what I hear, this is one of the most prestigious awards one can receive in the field of science and technology at my age. I will most certainly enjoy the upcoming six weeks at the MIT!

The latest draft of my report

2010-04-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

During the last couple of weeks I've been busy writing the project report. If anyone would like to read it, see this link.

Comparison of the light curves

2010-03-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

The following figure contains both my own light curve and the light curves published in Hebb et al. 2009, which is the paper everyone refers to when writing about WASP-12b. Note the difference in spread between my observation using the NOT and ALFOSC versus Hebb's Liverpool observation.

UPDATE: Exhibition in Luleå

2010-02-22T05:45:00.000-08:00

It appears that there were too few exhibitors signed up for the exhibition in Luleå, so I'm going straight for the finals in Stockholm!

Sometimes I'm really lucky:D

WASP-12b is now largest known planet in the Universe!

2010-02-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

Mr. Random Chance, Lady Luck and their little Coincidence visited me today. As I was surfing the internet I stumbled upon a list of known exoplanets and their properties. By curiosity I sorted the list after radius and discovered that according to my data, WASP-12b is the rightful owner of the title "Largest Known Planet in the Universe".

The current planet thought to be the largest one is TrES-4b with a radius of 1.799 Rj, but my data clearly states that WASP-12b has a radius of 1.871 Rj. Therefore, from now on, WASP-12b is the largest known planet in the Universe. Cool!

Now, the chances of there being any life on WASP-12b are very slim, but you never know!

Exhibition in Luleå

2010-02-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

Next week I'm off to the qualifying round for the national science fair. This is my graphical exhibition material which I have made in photoshop. Sorry for the Swedish, but the judges must be able to understand the greatness of my work.

New property estimates of WASP-12b

2010-02-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

My calculations are complete. The result is staggering! The big shot scientists in Hebb et al. 2009 were wrong by about 20%; the mean density of WASP-12b is actually 0.20 Jupiter-densities and not 0.24 as they thought. Science has advanced!

Video from inside the Dome

2010-02-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

Stars and planets to scale

2010-02-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

My calculations on the new parameters of the WASP-12 planetary system are almost complete. Before I publish them I want to share this picture with you. I made it myself in photoshop and it shows the relative size of WASP-12, WASP-12b, our Sun, the Earth and the rest of the planets in our solar system. Note that the relative distances between the bodies are incorrect. Enjoy!

My latest Light Curve

2010-01-27T04:13:00.000-08:00

I've played around with the data in different plotting softwares (including the online tool I used for my last post, which calculated the drop depth, transit length etc.) and here's my latest LC produced using Microsoft Excel. I've added a trend line which calculates the mean of 10 measured values and combines that into one point and draws a line based on those new values. The result is incredible!

First reduction of the NOT data

2010-01-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

I have finished the preliminary reduction of the data. I know some of you doubted me (I forgive you), but I did observe WASP-12b!

La Palma is a Paradise

2009-12-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

We arrived at the NOT at noon the 6th of December.

This is the Nordic Optical Telescope facility. The observatory is the building that looks like one, beside it on the right is the spectrograph FIES and the small house in the middle of the picture is the service building (where we can get coffee).

The telescope has an aperture of 2.56m. It's huge!

The observations started at twilight.

Darkness came fast and more stars was visible than I've ever seen before!

A while after twilight we saw the zodiacal light. Jupiter is visible at the top left.

Me at the controls. Every action was triggered with simple commands. WASP-12 was in the focus most of the night.

Gran Telescope Canaries rests after another busy night. The shadow of the mountain is visible.

We visited the William Herschel Telescope. It has an aperture of 4.2m. THAT'S huge!

Finally we went on a walkabout in the wilderness.

This was a once-in-a-life-time experience, but I'm hoping to come back someday!

Photometry and Spectroscopy done at the NOT

2009-12-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

Yes, the title of this post is telling the truth. I really did acquire the photometric and spectroscopic data on WASP-12(b) at the NOT this week. Below are two diagrams showing when the observations were made (marked with black line and circles).

Now it's time for data reduction and finally some peace of mind for me (they told us we only had a 50/50 chance of having weather suitable for observations at best. Guess we were lucky).

Photometry

Spectroscopy

Radial Velocity of WASP-12

2009-12-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

Facing the possibility of doing some high-resolution spectroscopic observations of WASP-12 at the NOT, I was asked by the director of NOT to calculate when the star would be at its velocity extremes (ie. at 0.25 and 0.75 in the period if transit occurs at 0.00). The time of transit and the period can be obtained at http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/ and a Julian date to Calendar date conversion tool can be found at http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.php. After a few hours of calculating, sinus curve making and editing in Photoshop, this was the result:

WASP-12b - My Final Choice

2009-11-18T02:15:00.000-08:00

During the recent developments regarding the new status of my project (I will now get to use the NOT!), it has become more and more essential to have a clear objective, and therefore also a clear target. After hours of research on which exoplanet that is absolutely best suited for my project, WASP-12b stood out from the crowd in many ways. WASP-12b's existence was published 1 April 2008 and was discovered with the SuperWASP-telecope located on La Palma. The exoplanet is observable both from NOT and BHO, the parent star has a visual magnitude of 11,7, it has a very short period of only 1,09 days, it dims the light of the star about 0,015 mag, it has a transit duration of 176 minutes and it is well placed in the night sky in the constellation of Auriga (exact coordinates of WASP-12 is RA (J2000): 06 30 32.79, DE (J2000): +29 40 20.4).

WASP-12b is from now on the official target!

http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/etd.php?STARNAME=WASP-12&PLANET=b

Observing time at the Nordic Optical Telescope

2009-11-18T01:46:00.000-08:00

As previously reported I have won a trip to the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) in december. Me and a small group of nordic students will have the opportunity to use the NOT to observe the night sky the nights between 6-7 and 7-8 december. In other words, I will get full access to a modern 2,56 m telescope with super high-tech instruments to make a photometric transit observation and possibly even radial velocity measurements by spectroscopic means. With that high-resolution, high-quality data, I will be able to calculate not only the size of the planet, but also its mass and density.

I have contacted the finnish winner of the competition, who shares my interest in exoplanets, and he has agreed on cooperating with me on my project. The director of NOT has given me his support on the implementation of my idea.

It is now clear that I will use the NOT to make my own observation of an exoplanet.

http://www.not.iac.es/

Assi Süer wished me Good Luck

2009-10-09T02:03:00.000-07:00

The person behind Astrobloggen (http://astronomi.blogg.se/), Sweden's most popular blog on astronomy visited Kiruna and Rymdgymnasiet last week. I got an opportunity to speak with her about our common interest in astronomy, my trip to the Official Opening of the International Year of Astronomy i Paris, my upcoming visit to the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) and of course my project. She was very enthusiastic about it and quite jealous. She wished me good luck many times and I feel more optimistic than ever. Thank you for your encouragement Assi, and good luck to you too!

Link to her post on meeting me (in swedish): http://astronomi.blogg.se/2009/september/traffade-nagon.html

The Making of a Light Curve

2009-10-09T01:14:00.000-07:00

A light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region, as a function of time. In Exoplanetology, it is a graph showing the transit of an exoplanet in front of its mother star, because the planet slightly dims some of the light emitted from that star when it passes in front of it. When you monitor the light emitted from a star and see that give-away bump i a periodic matter, you can be fairly certain that it's a planet orbiting that star that is causing the bump in the light curve. The result and principle looks something like this:

There are a variety of ways to make a light curve like this, all of which involves expensive hardware and software. As it happens, I have access to both.... ehh...had. The new telescope will probably arrive to Kiruna soon, but until then, I'm stranded in the dark.

But in the meantime I can still practice making light curves. All you need is a computer, the proper software and the raw data. As I am incapable of producing the raw data myself for the moment, I can download data produced by other amateur astronomers also looking for exoplanets, to produce al light curve from their data. Such data uploaded to the internet for just this reason (for others to practice on) can be found here: http://brucegary.net/AXA/SampleRawImages/index.htm

I have used MaxIm DL v5.07 to analyze and reduce the raw data and Microsoft Office Excel to make the light curve. To my surprise it was pretty easy to get the hang of what to do with the data, but something tells me obtaining the data for myself is gonna be much harder. I will not upload my result to avoid confusion with the real thing later on, but I'm telling you; I did it. All credit goes to Bruce Gary for providing the material and the guide on what to do with it: http://brucegary.net/book_EOA/x.htm

Open-mindedness is a virtue

2009-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Something hit my mind today; why feel satisfied with just one? I'm not talking about polygamy, but exoplanets. Why should I just have HD209458b in my mind when there are literally hundreds of (discovered) exoplanets out there? If I attempt to observe a lot of different exoplanets my chances of successfully observe at least one increases dramatically. I found this excellent site today doing my daily stumbling-around-on-google:

http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/predictions.php

You can just insert your location and the site will feed you with transiting candidates for the next 24 hours. A paradise for someone like me! Besides my original transiting candidate (HD209458b), HD189733b, TrES-3b and CoRoT-3b might be of serious interest (among others).

Predicted Transit Epochs: HD209458b

2009-09-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

A tip for the beginner: always be prepared! In my case that includes knowing when the transit will occur. Long story short, here they are:

Tmid (HJD)	BEGIN (UT/h,A)	CENTER (DD.MM. UT/h,A)	END (UT/h,A)

2455107.141	02.10 13:50	02.10. 15:22	02.10 16:54
2455110.666	06.10 2:26	06.10. 3:58	06.10 5:30
2455114.190	09.10 15:2	09.10. 16:34	09.10 18:6
2455117.715	13.10 3:37	13.10. 5:9	13.10 6:41
2455121.240	16.10 16:13	16.10. 17:45	16.10 19:17
2455124.765	20.10 4:48	20.10. 6:21	20.10 7:53
2455128.289	23.10 17:24	23.10. 18:56	23.10 20:28
2455131.814	27.10 6:0	27.10. 7:32	27.10 9:4
2455135.339	30.10 18:35	30.10. 20:7	30.10 21:40
2455138.864	03.11 7:11	03.11. 8:43	03.11 10:15
2455142.388	06.11 19:47	06.11. 21:19	06.11 22:51
2455145.913	10.11 8:22	10.11. 9:54	10.11 11:26
2455149.438	13.11 20:58	13.11. 22:30	14.11 0:2
2455152.963	17.11 9:34	17.11. 11:6	17.11 12:38
2455156.487	20.11 22:9	20.11. 23:41	21.11 1:13
2455160.012	24.11 10:45	24.11. 12:17	24.11 13:49
2455163.537	27.11 23:20	28.11. 0:53	28.11 2:25
2455167.062	01.12 11:56	01.12. 13:28	01.12 15:0
2455170.586	05.12 0:32	05.12. 2:4	05.12 3:36
2455174.111	08.12 13:7	08.12. 14:39	08.12 16:12
2455177.636	12.12 1:43	12.12. 3:15	12.12 4:47
2455181.161	15.12 14:19	15.12. 15:51	15.12 17:23
2455184.685	19.12 2:54	19.12. 4:26	19.12 5:58
2455188.210	22.12 15:30	22.12. 17:2	22.12 18:34
2455191.735	26.12 4:6	26.12. 5:38	26.12 7:10
2455195.260	29.12 16:41	29.12. 18:13	29.12 19:45
2455198.784	02.01 5:17	02.01. 6:49	02.01 8:21
2455202.309	05.01 17:52	05.01. 19:25	05.01 20:57
2455205.834	09.01 6:28	09.01. 8:0	09.01 9:32
2455209.359	12.01 19:4	12.01. 20:36	12.01 22:8
2455212.883	16.01 7:39	16.01. 9:11	16.01 10:44
2455216.408	19.01 20:15	19.01. 21:47	19.01 23:19
2455219.933	23.01 8:51	23.01. 10:23	23.01 11:55
2455223.458	26.01 21:26	26.01. 22:58	27.01 0:30
2455226.982	30.01 10:2	30.01. 11:34	30.01 13:6
2455230.507	02.02 22:38	03.02. 0:10	03.02 1:42
2455234.032	06.02 11:13	06.02. 12:45	06.02 14:17
2455237.557	09.02 23:49	10.02. 1:21	10.02 2:53
2455241.081	13.02 12:24	13.02. 13:57	13.02 15:29
2455244.606	17.02 1:0	17.02. 2:32	17.02 4:4
2455248.131	20.02 13:36	20.02. 15:8	20.02 16:40
2455251.656	24.02 2:11	24.02. 3:43	24.02 5:16
2455255.180	27.02 14:47	27.02. 16:19	27.02 17:51
2455258.705	03.03 3:23	03.03. 4:55	03.03 6:27
2455262.230	06.03 15:58	06.03. 17:30	06.03 19:3
2455265.755	10.03 4:34	10.03. 6:6	10.03 7:38
2455269.279	13.03 17:10	13.03. 18:42	13.03 20:14
2455272.804	17.03 5:45	17.03. 7:17	17.03 8:49
2455276.329	20.03 18:21	20.03. 19:53	20.03 21:25
2455279.854	24.03 6:56	24.03. 8:29	24.03 10:1
2455283.378	27.03 19:32	27.03. 21:4	27.03 22:36
2455286.903	31.03 8:8	31.03. 9:40	31.03 11:12
2455290.428	03.04 20:43	03.04. 22:16	03.04 23:48

Remember all times displayed are in UT.

Sorry for a long and maybe unnecessary post. You didn't have to read through it all.

Source: http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/predict_detail.php?STARNAME=HD209458&PLANET=b&PER=&M=

D'oh! The electronics of the LX200 seems to be broken!

2009-09-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

Last friday when I was installing the required astronomical software on my computer, and was just about to connect the telescope to the computer, I noticed that the telescope didn't behave as usual. As I inserted the power cable and pushed the ON button, the damn thing just didn't want to start up as usual. Instead the display just showed "Meade" (the menu should appear) and the telescope slewed (pretty fast) in a clock-wise direction (it shouldn't do that ether). It didn't matter how many times I restarted it, unplugged all the cables, reinserted them etc., it just didn't want to cooperate.

One curious fact is that there was a puddle of water just beneath the telescope. I don't know much about electronics, but I do know that water ain't very merciful to circuit boards. Maybe water has somehow gotten into the electronics, I don't know. Anyway, after three days of drying inside, the thing still didn't work properly. Guess we will just have to send it off for repair...

And now for the really strange (and even scary part): The same day as I noticed the telescope did't work, a guy from Astrosweden.se (a licensed Meade dealer) arrived here in Kiruna for the annual Norrland Star Party. He said he could take our LX200 Classic with him (and send it off for repair to Germany himself) and that he would send us a brand new LX200R GPS which we could use in the meantime. Not only in the LX200R GPS way better than our old one, it will work with my computer for sure! The old one might not be willing to communicate with the computer, part of because it's so old (I mean pre-USB times).

Sometimes an unexpected faliure can be a very positive thing. But hey, the moments between I knew our LX200 had broken and the Meade guy rescued me, I was really f***ed, 'cause without a proper telescope, there's no exoplanet observation.

Trouble with the autoguiding

2009-09-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

I had planned on using the Meade Pictor 201XT as an autoguider, but after hours of reading through the manual, forums discussing it, websites about it and several reviews from other who had used it, I decided (as many others before me) that it is a piece of junk.

You see, you have an autoguider for a purpose, and that purpose is for it to guide the telescope so it matches the movement of the stars, which is absolutely necessary when taking long exposures, or a lot of exposures over a long period of time in my case.

The Pictor 201XT can simply not do that. At least not without weeks of tweaking and troubleshooting. Below is a picture of a former Pictor 201XT from a not-so-happy-owner of one.

Well, all hope isn't gone just yet my friends, 'cause I always have a plan B. My school accidentally bought TWO Meade DSI III last time they were feeling rich. I'll just use one for exoplanet searching and the other one for guiding the first one. Problem (offically number) one solved!

Check out this link (picture of the menu scheme) if you want to know one of many reasons this simply isn't worth the strain: http://spazioinwind.libero.it/gpasi/tech/201xt/201xtmd.htm
The thing has got only ONE button which you can press. You can navigate the menu by pressing it a SHORT while, a MEDIUM while or a LONG while. The display can show up to TWO numbers or two letters simultaneously. And through that you have to make all the settings, calibration etc. And even if you succeed with all that, you're still lucky if it guides correctly, according to the internet.

So, there are other planets out there, what makes it so important?

2009-09-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

I'll tell you (part of) why it's so important.

We now know of about 370 planets outside of our solar system. We have discovered them one by one since 1995, the time when Michel Mayor et al discovered the first ever known exoplanet. We know they all come in different sizes, they rotate around their mother star at different distances and that they all have a unique composition of elements. To the general public that might not be very arousing, but imagine we stumbled upon something like this...

The great Carl Sagan prophesied that we would one day discover exoplanets. He was right. And soon I will make an observation of an exoplanet myself, proving him right.

In memory of Carl Sagan.

Visit to the Nordic Optical Observatory (NOT)

2009-09-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I participated in a writing competition. The assignment was to write an essay with an astronomical theme. I, ofcourse, just sent in my project plan (heavily slightly modified) on Exoplanets (link below). The competition was open for all swedes in high school (gymnasiet). The prize was a visit to the Nordic Optical Observatory (NOT), La Palma (see picture below).

Yesterday, my chem teacher called me and said that I was one of two winners from Sweden (the others being from the other Nordic countries). So, I guess I'll be going to the Canary Islands in December! Not unwelcome when you live in Kiruna and has a lethal interest in astronomy! Wohoo!

News article:
http://www.astronomi2009.se/pressrummet/38-pressmeddelanden/104-studenter-fran-kiruna-aker-till-nordiska-optiska-teleskopet

Another news article:
http://www.tentakel.vr.se/nummer/200906/notiser/rymdstudentervannuppsatstavling.5.250d5a1a12255a2b01380003300.html

Yet another news article:
http://www.kuriren.nu/lokalt/?ort=360858&articleid=5052274

My winning contribution:

http://www.astronomi2009.se/files/Ingemyr.pdf

More research and some studying

2009-09-10T07:42:00.001-07:00

My astronomy teacher has provided me with the manuals for the equipment (some 60-100 pages each). He thought it would be best if I actually read the manuals before I start doing the experimenting. I've always considered manuals to be something for amateurs, but I have to say I learned something today: manuals are mostly for amateurs.

Besides from reading up on how it all works, I've gotten into contact with a student at IRV (Department of space science, Kiruna) who is also doing a project about exoplanets. I don't know what kind of collaborating we can do in this early stage, but it's certainly a good thing that I'm not alone. He gave me a reading tip:

http://www.uppsatser.se/uppsats/3ea9782113/

It's a Master's Thesis on Exoplanets done by Nathalie Östberg at the Department of Astronomy and Space Physics in Uppsala. Very interesting reading I'll have to say. It contains very specific details on some procedures that I've found to be quite complicated in the past. Hopefully it'll be easier to master the techniques now when I've read how it's done by the Master.

Astronomy equipment!

2009-09-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of the instruments (excluding my computer) that I'll be using the next couple of months:

From left to right: a Meade Pictor 201XT Autoguider, a Meade Pictor 416 and a new Meade DSI III.

A Meade LX200 EMC 12" Classic. I hope this one is sufficient.

New computer hardware and a communications device!

2009-09-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

With me on the quest for other worlds is now a brand new MacBook Pro 15" (running the latest Mac OSX 10.6 "Snow Leopard" OS), an iPhone 3GS 32gb and a little remote controller for my future powerpoint presentations of the project. The MacBook has more than enough power to manage all the graphics and CPU intense operations (combining images, plotting the light curve etc.) and the iPhone is good for communications and scheduling my observing sessions (you never know when you'll have to call someone for more coffee).

As soon as I've installed Windows XP on the machine, there's nothing between me and that sweet upcoming light curve of mine.

Osiris, here I come!

2009-03-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

I have now made up my mind about which exoplanet I'm gonna attempt to observe: HD 209458 b in the constellation of Pegasus. It is unofficially named Osiris and is a Cloudy Hot Jupiter class planet. It was discovered in 1999 by Michel Mayor among others. I had the great honour of meeting Prof. Mayor at the Opening of the Internationel Year of Astronomy in Paris i Januar and I will now attempt to reproduce his feat (which gave him the Swiss Marcel Benoist Prize, the Balzan Prize, the Albert Einstein Medal and the Shaw Prize in Astronomy). This will be fun!

Here's a list of the predicted transit epochs (of which I will observe at least one myself):
http://207.111.201.70/transitsearch/dynamiccontent/HD209458_b.transits.txt

Kepler Mission

2009-03-07T13:01:00.000-08:00

Today the Kepler Mission was launched. The mission consists of a satellite staring at a 10x10 degree field in the constellation of Cygnus where it will look for earth-like planets for 3,5 years. Kepler is expected to find at least 50 planets that have almost the same characteristics as Earth. Now I at least have something to compete with!

Gathering of data

2009-02-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some research lately. Here's my result:

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia - http://exoplanet.eu/

The IYA's site on exoplanets - http://www.exoplanet2009.org/

Transitsearch - http://www.transitsearch.org/

Systemic, a site for people like me - http://oklo.org/

Extrasolar Planets Research Group - http://www.eprgweb.com/home.html

Amateur Exoplanet Archive - http://brucegary.net/AXA/x.htm

Now, during the time I read trough all of this, why don't you listen to the beautiful piece which I have chosen to represent this project. You'll find it below.

Observation site

2009-01-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

This is the Bengt Hultqvist Observatory (BHO), the observatory which I will use for the project. The equipment I will use is a Meade LX200 EMC 12" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, a Meade Super Plössl 26mm eyepiece and a Meade Deep Sky Imager PRO III CCD-camera.

http://bho.spelaroll.se/

Michel Mayor - The first man to discover an extra solar planet

2009-01-20T05:59:00.002-08:00

Me shaking hands with Michel Mayor, the first man to discover an exoplanet. The method he used was the radial velocity method. I am now going to attempt to reproduce his achievement, but by using the transit detection method instead.

Theme song for the Project

2009-01-20T05:59:00.001-08:00