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Message 49046 - Posted: 24 Nov 2004, 13:36:48 UTC
Last modified: 24 Nov 2004, 13:42:32 UTC

From a recent Planetary Society news letter:

"Your support for SETI@home has also flowered in the
creation of BOINC, which also boasts some innovative
projects, including:

- PlanetQuest, which is looking for extrasolar planets by searching astrophotographs for occlusions"

Anybody have more info on this project?

Please let me be a BETA Tester

Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please let me be a BETA Tester!!!!!!!!


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Message 49049 - Posted: 24 Nov 2004, 14:19:46 UTC - in response to Message 49046.  

I saw that same article. I did some quick searches for the project but didn't find anything. :( I was bummed.

Jim

> From a recent Planetary Society news letter:
>
> "Your support for SETI@home has also flowered in the
> creation of BOINC, which also boasts some innovative
> projects, including:
>
> - PlanetQuest, which is looking for extrasolar planets by searching
> astrophotographs for occlusions"
>
> Anybody have more info on this project?
>
> Please let me be a BETA Tester
>
> Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please,
> Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please,
> Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please,
> Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please,
> Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please let me be a
> BETA Tester!!!!!!!!

>
>
> The Space Directory
> Visit Seti.org.uk
> SETI News Mailing List
>

>
>
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Message 49051 - Posted: 24 Nov 2004, 14:26:44 UTC - in response to Message 49049.  

> I saw that same article. I did some quick searches for the project but didn't
> find anything. :( I was bummed.
>
> Jim

This is NASA's PlanetQuest site:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html

No mention of BOINC as far as I could see.

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Message 49118 - Posted: 24 Nov 2004, 23:03:23 UTC - in response to Message 49046.  
Last modified: 21 Nov 2006, 4:49:50 UTC

The PhotonStar Project will be a distributed human project to support Optical SETI. Individuals with a PC, an Internet connection, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, and a telescope will be able to attach a laser detector to their telescope and use their PC to join their telescope with thousands of others to create a giant telescope. This giant telescope will be used to detect laser pulses from a specific star system at a specific time. See a paper about the project.
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Message 49129 - Posted: 25 Nov 2004, 0:16:00 UTC - in response to Message 49118.  
Last modified: 25 Nov 2004, 0:19:25 UTC

Misfit,

thank you for some very interesting information. I am getting ready to read the paper on it now, but the premise of the study sounds very intriguing. It sounds like something in which I would love to be involved.

Jim

EDIT: I had to copy the text off of the webpage and into a word processor. The text on the web page was too wide for me to easily read.

>
> The PhotonStar Project will be a
> distributed human project to support <a> href="http://www.coseti.org/introcoseti.htm">Optical SETI[/url]. Individuals
> with a PC, an Internet connection, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver,
> and a telescope will be able to attach a laser detector to their telescope and
> use their PC to join their telescope with thousands of others to create a
> giant telescope. This giant telescope will be used to detect laser pulses from
> a specific star system at a specific time. See a <a> href="http://www.coseti.org/4273-08p.htm">paper[/url] about the project.
>
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Message 49342 - Posted: 26 Nov 2004, 5:33:53 UTC
Last modified: 31 Dec 2004, 22:13:42 UTC

PlanetQuest Overview, Flash presentation

PlanetQuest 3D New Worlds Atlas, interactive Shockwave presentation

PLANETQUEST: THE MOVIE, QuickTime presentation

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Message 49394 - Posted: 26 Nov 2004, 17:26:43 UTC - in response to Message 49118.  
Last modified: 26 Nov 2004, 17:28:05 UTC

> The PhotonStar Project will be a
> distributed human project to support Optical SETI

It does sound like an excellent project. $2,500 - $5000 for the photon detector will limit its appeal to the average Joe. Not to mention the cost of an LX200 (or similar)...


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Message 49395 - Posted: 26 Nov 2004, 17:29:56 UTC - in response to Message 49394.  

True, very true. I didn't realize how much of an investment it would be when I wrote my last post. Maybe when I win the lottery. LOL (good luck to me, since I don't even buy tickets.)

> > The PhotonStar Project will be
> a
> > distributed human project to support <a> href="http://www.coseti.org/introcoseti.htm">Optical SETI[/url]
>
> It does sound like an excellent project. $2,500 - $5000 for the photon
> detector will limit its appeal to the average Joe. Not to mention the cost of
> an LX200 (or similar)...
>
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Message 49397 - Posted: 26 Nov 2004, 17:45:16 UTC - in response to Message 49395.  
Last modified: 26 Nov 2004, 17:46:11 UTC

> True, very true. I didn't realize how much of an investment it would be when
> I wrote my last post. Maybe when I win the lottery. LOL (good luck to me,
> since I don't even buy tickets.)

In that online paper, they are talking about getting 100,000 users. I just can't see that. Project Argus, which would be cheaper to get set up, has no where those sorts of numbers.

Maybe they could get a friendly manufacturer to come up with a less expensive version of the photon detector, or get Paul Allen to foot the bill, he isn't short of a few quid. ;-)

Looks like we will have to wait and see.



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Message 49404 - Posted: 26 Nov 2004, 18:35:15 UTC - in response to Message 49394.  
Last modified: 17 Nov 2006, 5:22:56 UTC

An Infrared Search for Origins

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope launched on April 18, 2003. The telescope's unprecedented infrared sensitivity allows astronomers to investigate the coldest, oldest and most dust-obscured objects in the universe.

Click here for an interactive Flash presentation with narration.
Click here for an interactive Flash presentation without narration.
Click here for the HTML version.
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Message 49431 - Posted: 26 Nov 2004, 22:03:18 UTC - in response to Message 49404.  

Naaa... I'll pass... for me, if it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. If I were to enter a contest to get ran over by a semi-truck then I would win that hands down. (then again... maybe that isn't such a bad thing)

> Or if you're feeling lucky you could enter the Astronomy Magazine <a> href="http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=2463">sweepstakes[/url]
> and try to win yourself that LX200. =)
>
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Message 49475 - Posted: 27 Nov 2004, 2:40:09 UTC
Last modified: 21 Nov 2006, 5:02:36 UTC

So far here are some sites that may be related to this project:

TransitSearch
Skywokker
TransitSearch Links
ExoPlanets
AVVSO
MuniPack
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Message 49476 - Posted: 27 Nov 2004, 2:41:42 UTC - in response to Message 49475.  
Last modified: 21 Nov 2006, 5:04:22 UTC

From ASTRONOMY magazine:

Transitsearch.org FAQ
Find out how you can help look for transiting extrasolar planets.
More than 100 planets have been found outside our solar system, most of them around stars much like our own sun. The discoveries are teaching astronomers about how solar systems form and offer the tantalizing hope of one day finding extraterrestrial life. Unfortunately, detecting these planets � especially those with orbital periods longer than about a week � requires a lot of precious telescope time. So a team of professional astronomers have set up a website, Transitsearch.org, to encourage advanced amateurs to join the hunt for extrasolar planets. Peruse some of the site's most frequently asked questions to learn how you can contribute to the search for new worlds.

What is an extrasolar planet?
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is basically a planet that lies outside our own solar system. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is still hashing out a final definition, but as it stands now, it is an object that orbits a star and is no more than 13 times Jupiter's mass (at which point fusion begins for an isotope of hydrogen, called deuterium, and the object begins to look like a star).

Astronomers had long theorized that many of the universe's billions of stars likely hosted planets, much as the sun hosts Earth and other orbiting objects. But the technology to reliably detect these planets was developed only recently. In 1991, astronomers found evidence for the first extrasolar planet around a radio pulsar called B1257+12. Then in 1995, researchers found the first extrasolar planet orbiting a star similar to our sun. Now, the tally of extrasolar planets has topped 100 and continues to grow (For an up-to-date list, see The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia.)

What is a transit?
A transit is when a planet passes between Earth and a star. Astronomers can't see the planet itself (at these distances, the star's light overwhelms the planet, which shines only by reflected starlight), but if they know when to look, they can catch it passing in front of the star because the star dims.

Transit links
http://kepler.nasa.gov/about/faq.html
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov (click on "Four ways to find a planet")
http://www.obs-nice.fr/guillot/anim/transit.gif
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/38/animation.html

Have transits ever been observed?
Only one transit has been confirmed outside the solar system, but transits in the solar system happen occasionally. Mercury transited the sun on November 15, 1999, and will again on May 7, 2003 (visible from Europe, Africa, and Asia).

Mercury transit information
1999: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/transit99.html
2003: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/transit03.html
2006: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/transit06.html

Venus will transit the sun on June 8, 2004, and on June 6, 2012.
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus0412.html

How many extrasolar planets are known to transit their host stars?
Only one so far, which is why Transitsearch.org was created! The only star currently known to possess a transiting planet is the 7.65-magnitude star HD 209458 in the constellation Pegasi. The star is 47 parsecs (153 light-years) away and is of spectral type G0V, similar to but slightly hotter than our sun. (For more information on the star see http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/planets/HD209458.html.) Two independent teams found the planet using the radial velocity, or Doppler, method in the fall of 1999. Once astronomers discovered the planet had a 3.52-day orbital period, it was a relatively simple matter to predict the next transit. Actually measuring the small changes in brightness is, unfortunately, not so simple.

For more on the HD 209458 transits, see http://www.hao.ucar.edu/public/research/stare/hd209458.html

What is the expected transit signal from a planet the size of Jupiter passing in front of a star the size of the sun?
Jupiter is about 10 percent as wide as the sun (or about one percent as large in area). So when a Jupiter-size planet passes directly in front of a sun-size star, the fractional area of the stellar disc blocked by the planet is one percent. For planets in short, circular orbits, it takes about three hours for the planet to transit � to completely cross the disk of the star. If the orbit isn't circular or seen exactly edge-on, that estimate could change. For planets in orbits very close to their stars, the radiation from the star actually expands the atmosphere of the planet and increases its radius. HD 209458b, the only planet confirmed to transit, has a radius almost 40 percent larger than Jupiter's. This increased radius is good news for transit hunters � the longer transit signal makes the planet easier to detect.

What is photometry?
Astronomical photometry is the measurement of an object's brightness.

What is differential photometry?
Differential photometry measures the ratio of the brightness of a target star and one or more comparison stars. With CCDs, which allow the simultaneous imaging of many stars, differential photometry is relatively easy. Single-channel photometers are also used for differential photometry, but because the telescope must be repositioned from star to star to make one measurement, brightness corrections may be necessary.

I have a CCD but don't have any experience doing photometry. How should I begin?
Our advice is to begin obtaining light curves of variable stars with your CCD and telescope first. There is a large body of experience about variable star observing and in general the average variable star exhibits a change in brightness that is large enough that it can be more easily detected than a planetary transit. Eclipsing binaries make good targets because their eclipse times are well known and you can schedule your observing for just those times where an eclipse can be seen. This is also good practice for not only getting good data but getting good data on demand, key for transit search success!

I don't have any suitable comparison stars in my CCD's field of view. What should I do?
You might want to consider trying a focal reducer to decrease the telescope's focal length and increase its field of view or try a target star where more comparison stars might be available.

What kind of CCD do I need?
Although we are reluctant to endorse specific products (in fact federal regulations prohibit this), we can list useful CCD attributes based on our experience with scientific-grade devices used at professional observatories. They are:
- Low read noise
- Low dark current
- An analog-to-digital converter of close to 16 bits
- No antiblooming features (although antiblooming CCDs can be made to work with care)
- Large enough to simultaneously image the object star and an equally bright comparison star

What kind of software do I need?
First calibrate your images using dark, bias, and flat-field operations. Any program that can perform aperture photometry will allow you to measure the brightness of the object star and at least one comparison star.

You'll need to be able to:
- Set the aperture size for the star
- Set the inner and outer radius for the background measurement
- See an estimate of the signal-to-noise ratio (the inverse of the precision) for each star to decide if your images are good enough to reduce, as well as which comparison star to use and how big to set the apertures.
- Do this for series of hundreds of images so you won't have to manually select the stars on subsequent frames.
- The software should assign a time to each brightness measurement based on the information in the FITS header. The fractional Julian day is best here, but GMT will do.
- Either plot the ratio of brightness measurements directly or output a table of brightness and time that can be imported into a spreadsheet, from which the brightness ratio can be calculated and the results plotted.

Do I have to observe standard stars and obtain transformation coefficients?
No. We are only interested in brightness changes that signal a transit, not the magnitude of any star on a standard system.

What do I do with my observations once I take them?
Reduce them and look for a transit. Use your spreadsheet's standard deviation formula to determine the standard deviation of the series of measurements. If it looks like this, post your results at the Transitsearch.org message board.
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Message 49499 - Posted: 27 Nov 2004, 4:29:17 UTC

i would love to do it but i could only donate computer time cause im only 15nd there is no way i could buy all that. the best telescope i own only ran three hundred
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Message 49649 - Posted: 28 Nov 2004, 5:28:03 UTC
Last modified: 21 Nov 2006, 5:12:44 UTC

PLANETQUEST INTERACTIVE GALLERY

GAMES:

Science Fact or Science Fiction?
Test your knowledge of what's real and what isn't in the area of space travel and the search for extraterrestrial life.

Interstellar Trip Planner
How long does it take to travel to the nearest star? The nearest planetary system? Find out!

Formation Flight Game
Control a trio of floating robots as they perform tricky maneuvers in this simulation of a key planet-finding technology, based on a real NASA flight experiment onboard the International Space Station. Surround imagery courtesy Johnson Space Center and the crew of Expedition 6.

SIMULATIONS:

Explore the Universe in 3D
The New Worlds Atlas is a continuously updated database of all planets that have been discovered around stars other than the Sun.

3D Black Hole Model
In additional to searching for new planets outside our solar system, The Space Interferometry Mission will look for evidence of binary black hole systems at heart of elliptical galaxies.

SIM 3D Model
The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) is a NASA Origins mission that will combine starlight from multiple mirrors to create a virtual telescope of unprecedented sensitivity.

3D Extrasolar Planetary System
Explore upsilon Andromedae, the first solar system discovered around a nearby star. Click on individual planets for close-up views.

Keck Virtual Tour
Roam through the corridors and domes of the world's largest and most powerful observatory, located atop an extinct volcano in Hawaii.

ANIMATIONS AND VIDEOS:

Four Ways to Find a Planet
Learn about the various methods scientists are using to discover new worlds with this fun and funny tutorial.

Overview: The Search Begins
A brief, visual introduction to the quest for new worlds.

PlanetQuest: The Movie
A dramatic, fast-paced introduction to NASA's search for life-bearing planets around other stars, featuring planet-hunter Geoff Marcy.

Star 55 Cancri
This animation shows the planetary system around the star 55 Cancri, beginning with its outermost planet and zooming in toward the star. With the recent discovery of an inner Neptune-sized planet, 55 Cancri has become the first star outside of our Sun known to support four planets.

Venus Transit and the Search for New Worlds
This webcast previews a rare astronomical event that will occur in the summer of 2004. A NASA panel discusses how to prepare for the transit and explains how it relates to the search for new worlds.

SIM deployment
Animation showing deployment of the Space Interferometry Mission spacecraft from the space shuttle.

TPF "free-flyer" concept
Animated demonstration of one concept for the Terrestrial Planet Finder.

Keck Interferometer Animation
Find out how two giant telescopes are combined to create an even bigger one.
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Message 49664 - Posted: 28 Nov 2004, 9:16:50 UTC - in response to Message 49649.  

> Thank U Misfit

That are very useful Links.

Hi program, U get crunched :-)

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Message 49689 - Posted: 28 Nov 2004, 13:02:53 UTC - in response to Message 49475.  

I think alot of us would love to be a part of that ;) You'll keep us posted I hope?


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Message 50082 - Posted: 30 Nov 2004, 3:46:57 UTC - in response to Message 49689.  
Last modified: 21 Nov 2006, 5:14:36 UTC

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Message 50092 - Posted: 30 Nov 2004, 4:18:07 UTC - in response to Message 50082.  

There's no such thing as bad publicity. Maybe they're trying to stir us up into making PlanetQuest on our own.
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Message 50160 - Posted: 30 Nov 2004, 12:47:01 UTC

I kinda wondered about the odds of finding a planet in such a fashion. So far one has, but that may be a severe stroke of luck. If our solar system is a guide, then most planets around any given star are more or less on the same plane (the ecliptic), and therefore will only transit a star if the observer is roughly on the same plane. The question is, how roughly?

I decided to break out a pencil and paper (and a large eraser) and try out my rusted trigonometry. I worked out the geometry that would make the disc of the planet just miss the disc of the star (i.e, the angle the plane the planet travels absolutely must be less than this from us to transit even partially). I put our position at 100 light years away. I entered the formulas into Excel and plugged in numbers. I figured the best option would be for a planet the size of Jupiter at around the orbital distance of Mercury from a star identical to our sun (such a configuration would be a probable candidate for detection via the star's wobble anyway). The result was .68 degrees. This gives any given star system with this configuration a one in 132 chance of being aligned correctly. Moving Jupiter out to where it actually is in our solar system results in this cutoff angle dropping to .05 degrees off the ecliptic. Moving the observer to 50 light years results in a decrease in the angle (getting closer is worse), but a negligible one.

We're not really sure how likely stars are to have planets and my calculations don't take into account how much of Jupiter would have to have covered the sun to be noticeable. This makes the job even tougher. Anyone who participates in this project should realize that the likelihood for success is low. However, I could understand if one had the means one would do it anyway. Long shot doesn't mean no chance. That's why my computer runs 24/7 looking for ET. :)
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