Related papers: Data reduction method for OPTICAM multiband time s…

Clouds have been shown to be present in many exoplanetary atmospheres. Cloud formation modeling predicts considerable inhomogeneities of cloud cover, consistent with optical phase curve observations. However, optical phase curves cannot…

Photometric surveys have provided incredible amounts of astronomical information in the form of images. However, astronomical images often contain artifacts that can critically hinder scientific analysis by misrepresenting intensities or…

Polarization plays an important role in various time-domain astrophysics to understand the magnetic fields, geometry, and environments of spatially unresolved variable sources. In this paper we present the results of laboratory and on-sky…

We report the first extrasolar planet observations from the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), currently the world's largest, fully steerable, single-aperture optical telescope. We used the OSIRIS tunable filter imager on the GTC to…

The sky subtraction performances of multi-fiber spectrographs are discussed, analysing in detail the case of the OPTOPUS system at the 3.6 meter ESO telescope at La Silla. A standard technique, based on flat-fields obtained with a uniformly…

In searches for planetary transits in the field, well over half of the survey stars are typically giants or other stars that are too large to permit straightforward detection of planets. For all-sky searches of bright V<~11 stars, the…

Atmospheric optical turbulence (OT) monitoring is crucial for site characterisation at astronomical observatories and optical communications ground stations. The Shack-Hartmann Image Motion Monitor (SHIMM) instrument implements a fast,…

We have carried out photometric follow-up observations of bright transiting extrasolar planets using the CbNUOJ 0.6m telescope. We have tested the possibility of obtaining high photometric precision by applying the telescope defocus…

The XO project's first objective is to find hot Jupiters transiting bright stars, i.e. V < 12, by precision differential photometry. Two XO cameras have been operating since September 2003 on the 10,000-foot Haleakala summit on Maui. Each…

Observations of exoplanet transit spectra are essential to understanding the physics and chemistry of distant worlds. The effects of opacity sources and many physical processes combine to set the shape of a transit spectrum. Two such key…

Due to turbulence in the atmosphere images taken from ground-based telescopes become distorted. With adaptive optics (AO) images can be given greater clarity allowing for better observations with existing telescopes and are essential for…

Light curves produced by wide-field exoplanet transit surveys such as CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS are affected by sensor-wide systematic noise which is correlated both spatiotemporally and with other instrumental parameters such as photometric…

Near-infrared photometry of transiting extrasolar planets can be of great scientific value. It is however not straightforward to reach the necessary millimagnitude precision. Here we report on our attempts to observe transits and secondary…

We have begun a large-scale photometric survey of nearby open clusters and star-forming regions, the Monitor project, aiming to measure time-series photometry for >10,000 cluster members over >10 sq.deg of sky, to find low-mass eclipsing…

The XO project aims at detecting transiting exoplanets around bright stars from the ground using small telescopes. The original configuration of XO (McCullough et al. 2005) has been changed and extended as described here. The instrumental…

We present a fast and efficient hybrid algorithm for selecting exoplanetary candidates from wide-field transit surveys. Our method is based on the widely-used SysRem and Box Least-Squares (BLS) algorithms. Patterns of systematic error that…

PAUCam is an innovative optical narrow-band imager mounted at the William Herschel Telescope built for the Physics of the Accelerating Universe Survey (PAUS). Its set of 40 filters results in images that are complex to calibrate, with…

The exoplanet revolution is well underway. The last decade has seen order-of-magnitude increases in the number of known planets beyond the Solar system. Detailed characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres provide the best means for…

Photometric observations of planetary transits may show localized bumps, called transit anomalies, due to the possible crossing of photospheric starspots. The aim of this work is to analyze the transit anomalies and derive the temperature…

The transit method, employed by MOST, \emph{Kepler}, and various ground-based surveys has enabled the characterization of extrasolar planets to unprecedented precision. These results are precise enough to begin to measure planet atmosphere…