WASP PROJECT
WASP0 (Wide Angle Search for Planets) is a
prototype project for detecting extra solar planets using the transit method.
The whole idea is based on the fact that when a planet transits the parent star,
there is a small, yet detectable, decrease in the stars luminocity.
The WASP Camera consists of an Apogee10 CCD
and a 180mm Nikon Telefoto lens. The resulting 8x8 degree field contains more
than 30.000 stars, which can simultaneously be searched for planets, giving the
WASP method a considerable advantage against the radial velocity method.
The project, which is being conducted in
collaboration with the SuperWASP Consortium (www.superwasp.org) began 3 years ago in the
Kryoneri Astronomical Station (Korinth, Peloponisos) of the National Observatory of
Athens supervised by the late Dr. Emilios Harlaftis. During the
first run of the WASP0 project two fields were observed (Draco and Hyades) and
the data were collected with two different exposure times (20 and 120 secs for
the bright and the faint stars respectively). For the reduction of the data the
WASP Pipeline, courtesy of Queen's University Belfast, will be used. A test also
took part in 20-21 October 2003 at the National Observatory. The first light
curve from the already know planet HD209458 was produced using data from the
WASP Camera, data which were taken under full moon.
This test proved that WASP can perform
perfectly in spite of any difficulties due to bad observing conditions.
At present, since the necessary equipment
has been moved to Tenerife, the project has come to a halt regarding new
observations, as we are unable to continue untill a new CCD camera is
purchased.
You
can see here the first results from WASP0 in
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Last update: Aug 30 10:40:00 EET 2006 |