by Anthony Ayiomamitis
The light curve for exoplanet CoRoT-1b in Monoceros depicted above is the first discovery of the French-led CoRoT (Convection Rotation and planetary Transits) satellite mission which was launched in December 2006 for the specific purpose of studying 12,000 stars per session over 30- and 150-day periods using an on-board 27-cm telescope. Its main advantage being in (polar) earth orbit is the ability to bypass the adverse effects of earth's atmosphere and the limited windows of opportunity available otherwise (due to darkness etc). CoRoT-1b, announced in the spring of 2008, is characterized with a mass and radius 1.03 and 1.49 times that of Jupiter, respectively, thus making this find a low-density but very large hot Jupiter and which defies current irradiated planet theory and modelling since its radius is much bigger for its mass. CoRoT-1b requires 139 minutes to transit its parent star at a depth of approximately 25 mmag (2.5%). The parent star, GSC 4804:2268, is of G0V spectral type and is estimated to have a mass of 0.95 solar masses, a radius equivalent to 1.11 solar radii, a temperature of 5,950° K and to lie at a distance of 1560 light-years away with a visual magnitude of 13.6. Further details regarding CoRoT-1 and CoRoT-1b are available in the paper published by the discovery team led by Barge.
Technical Details:
Date: Feb 04, 2010 @ 19:30:02 - 23:53:51 UT+2
Location: Athens, Greece (38.2997° N, 23.7430° E)
Equipment: AP 160 f/7.5 Starfire EDF, AP 1200GTO GEM, SBIG ST-10XME, SBIG CFW-10, Baader Lum filter
Integrations: Lum: 85 x 180 sec, Dark: 15 x 180 sec, Flat: ~17,500 ADU, Binning: 2x2
Temperatures: Ambient: +08.0 ° C, CCD Chip: -30.0° C
The C- and K-stars used for the purposes of the differential photometry measurements depicted below were GSC 4804:1988 (mag 13.7) and GSC 4804:1936 (mag 13.7) respectively. Due to the low magnitude of CoRoT-1 (mag 13.6), the photometry involving the transit by CoRoT-1b represents a most-challenging exercise for amateur equipment.
Further detailshere.