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IRVEES Imaging and Radial Velocity Exoplanet/Exomoon Search WHAT IS IRVEES? IRVEES is an exoplanet hunting club that uses different imaging techniques and the radial velocity method to search for exoplanets and detect the signs of exomoons around imaged planets. HOW DOES IRVEES FIND PLANETS? IRVEES will use the Transit, Direct Imaging, and Radial Velocity methods to find planets. The Transit Method is the tactic mainly and currently being used. Here's a run-down of how these methods will work in the program: TRANSITS: A patch of sky, selected by one of the leaders, is focused on by a tracking telescope. Either a deep-sky CCD camera or DSLR camera is hooked up to the telescope. If things are working, the entire 0.15x0.15 degree patch of sky should be visible through the camera. Next, a set of photographs are taken over a 1-5 hour period. For the initial study of the sky patch, I recommend one 0.1/0.6-second exposure every 60 seconds. The next day, the light data for each star must be studied to find the sign of a full transit, or a transit that was partially captured. Use a program like AIP4WIN or AIJ. Each dimming star must be studied on multiple occasions to find a reacurring, identical transit. Do 2-5 hours of 0.2/0.6 second exposures every 50 seconds. If the IDENTICAL TRANSIT is seen 3 times, you have a planet! DIRECT IMAGING: This method should only be used on telescopes with an aperture of at least 16". You will also need a coronagraph, small enough to reveal areas closer to the star, but big enough to blot out the star. Take about 10-15 images of the star. The images will have these things called Speckles, but multiple images stacked together into a mini-movie will cause the speckles to movie. Planets will not. The dot that isn't moving might be a planet. Check for a radial velocity signature, or check for background stars. If everything checks out, you have a planet! RADIAL VELOCITY: Another method to be used with larger scopes. This method will need a spectrometer. They can be hard to find and probably very expensive, but well worth it. Some local observatories may have some on their scopes. For this method, take the light data of a star a few hours for several nights. Plot the redshift and bueshift data on a scatterplot. If you have a planet, the "wave" in the scatterplot will be consistent, and never get higher or lower than before. Its timing will also be consistent. If you find starspots or flares, the period will be random and the light shifts will change. If your signal is not from solar activity, then you have a companion for the star! These measurements will also give you the minimum mass of the object. Anything below 13 Jupiter masses is a planet, but anything above it is either a brown dwarf or a low-mass star. If anyone needs clarification, here are two links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_detecting_exoplanets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz0sBkp2kso HOW WILL THESE OBJECTS BE NAMED? Stars will get a name from the IRVEES Star Catalog (ISC). The number that follows is a date. For example, May 10th, 2016 becomes 51016. If a single star with a transit in the field of view, it will be named after the date of its discovery. This also goes for stars with a wobble and a large object around them captured by direct imaging. But, if multiple transiting stars are present, they will be named by the day when follow-up observations are made (remember: Investigate each star one by one). The stars will keep their ISC names even after a planet is found. Any discovered planet will get an official IRVEES name, such as IRVEES-1b. The star will get that IRVEES name as a secondary or backup designation. The number in the IRVEES name is determined by either order in discovery or order of its star's detection. The rest is regular exoplanet naming conventions. However, if a signal of a moon is found, then the Possibly Lunar Object (PLO) will be named something like IRVEES-5c-m. WHAT THINGS ARE NEEDED? A telescope with an aperture of 4-30" for Transits, and 10+" for all other methods. Make sure it can track stars! Either a DSLR or deep-sky CCD camera. A spectrometer for Radial Velocity. A camera-to-lens adapter, depending on what camera you have. A laptop. An astro-imaging program like Fire Capture. A program to analyse the light from a star (AIP4WIN or AIJ). A coronagraph that's large enough to block out the star but small enough to reveal planets closer to the star. Lots of patience! IRVEES DETECTION RANGES IRVEES Detection Ranges (IDR's) are specially selected, small patches of sky far away from Kepler's viewing fields. Each IRD is 0.15 by 0.15 degrees, and will be near a relatively bright star. The chosen star must be below magnitude 6, perferably magnitudes 8 through 10. That way the star is bright enough to be seen, but dim enough so it doesn't blot out other stars. This IDR Guide Star will have a specific location in your field of view. Remember, post a photograph of the IDR through your scope so I can make sure you have the right position. Also use a program like GIMP or Google Drawings to circle stars with detected dips in brightness. IDR-1 The first IDR will take place in the area around the star AC 54 1646-56. This is an M2V dwarf star of magnitude 10.17 in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has a Right Ascension of [16h 25m 24.62333s] and a Declination of [54* 18' 14.7733"]. It will also go under the IRVEES Star Catalog designation of ISC 541814. The goal of this IDR is to try to find a transiting exoplanet around either ISC 541814 or around the other stars in that field of view. This star can be kept at the center of the telescope's field of view. I may be searching for planets here on July 12th. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE TO DO? Members of IRVEES don't have to just be gathering data or hunting for the planets. If someone isn't able to find exoplanets, they can help analyse the data collected from each observation. Data analysis is pretty easy. For the transit method, look for dips in a star's light curve that dim the light of the star by less than 3%. Me and other planet hunters in IRVEES will provide the light curves of stars in the ISC catalog. For the radial velocity method, report the consecutive wave-like pattern in the data from a star. Once again, that data will be provided by the planet hunters. Anybody who finds the signature of an exoplanet in any type of data will be named the co-discoverer of that world, after the member who got the data. OTHER PROJECTS Project Lalande Transiting Exoplanet Moons Search (TEMS) FOUND PLANETS none ATM PLANET CANDIDATES none ATM SCHEDULE: October: Return of IRVEES observations and imaging! PRACTICE SYSTEMS: LEVEL 1: WASP-14 and TrES-2 LEVEL 2: Gliese 1214 and Gliese 436 LEVEL 3: Kepler-42 and TRAPPIST-1 LEVEL 4: Kepler-9, CoRoT-7, and Kepler-33 LEVEL 5: HD 80606, Kepler-62, Kepler-90 MEMBERS/COLLABORATORS @ProtoJeb21 (me) @Galacticvoyager @Kronos1174 @kunok @Panel @Mr. Quark @adamgerd SUPPORTERS/HELPERS/POSSIBLE MEMBERS @Spaceception @YNM @KAL 9000 @_PRATTER_ @Atlas2342 @RocketSquid @electricpants @Rdivine @cryogen @Andem @Emperor of the Titan Squid @_Augustus_ SEE ALSO: IRVEES Scientific Achievements IRVEES Exoplanets My Systems Found with Planet Hunters ______________________________________________________________________________________________ IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN FINDING PLANETS IN THE IRD, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. A PRIVATE MESSAGE IS NOT NEEDED.