Open Source Photometry Code Allows Amateur Astronomers To Detect Exoplanets

An anonymous reader writes "Have access to a telescope with a CCD? Now you can make your very own exoplanet transit curves. Brett Morris, a student from the University of Maryland, has written an open source photometry application known as Oscaar. In a recent NASA Press Release, Morris writes: "The purpose of a differential photometry code – the differential part – is to compare the changes in brightness of one star to another nearby. That way you can remove changes in stellar brightness due to the Earth's atmosphere. Our program measures the brightness change of all the stars in the telescope's field of view simultaneously, so you can pull out the change in brightness that you see from the planet-hosting star due to the transit event." The program opens up exoplanet-observing to amateur astronomers and undergraduate students across the globe."

Re:Er... what?

[Xolotl]

The high cost was in the hardware (telescope, CCD camera) not in the software. There have been open-source or free photometry codes available for years. Admittedly not all of them trivially easy to use, but then finding and observing the expolanet itself requires some ability and understanding. A popular and quite decent photometry program which is easy to use is C-Munipack [sourceforge.net]. (Which is not to say another one isn't a good thing, the more the better.)

Re:Er... what?

[ceoyoyo]

Photometry is pretty trivial. GOOD photometry is less so, and good, easy to use photometry even less so. Photometry applied to planet hunting (longitudinal differential photometry with statistical analysis), which is what I assume OSCAAR does (the web page is a little unclear just how far it goes), is another couple of levels on top. OSCAAR's contribution might well be the planet hunting bit, not the photometry bit.

Telescopes and CCDs are cheap. Learning stats and signal processing is not.

Personally, I'd rather roll my own, but then stats and signal processing is what I do.