Exoplanets
Exoplanets, or extrasolar planets, are bodies orbiting around stars different from the sun. The first discovery of an exoplanet was done by the swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz.
HD209458
In 2002 I tried to monitor the magnitude drop of this star under non ideal sky conditions. The lightcurve is here but the precision of the measurements is poor.
In 2006 I tried again. This time the lightcurve looks better.
HD189733
The planet circling this 8mag star was found by a group of french astronomers. Their web site clears the details of the discovery.
In the evening of Oct_25_2005 it was predicted a transit of the b-planet. Initially the night was cloudy but afterwards the sky cleared. In 4 hours observing I captured a 0,03mag drop of the brightness of the star. This drop lasted 1h and 40m.
The star HD189733 is just East from the Dumbell nebula (North=up; East=left).
TrES-1
In September 2007 I could record from Gnosca the 0.02mag drop of the exoplanet b of the star TrES-1.
I shot 176 60s-CCD images for a sum of 3.3hours. The whole lightdrop lasted 2.5hours.
