Exoplanet Targets for Unistellar Citizen Scientists Across the World for January 2021

hello exoplanet citizen scientists across the world!

We at the SETI Institute Unistellar Science Team are excited to bring several new year exoplanet science targets for our citizen scientists in Europe, Japan, Hawaii and the Americas! One of these exoplanets is a “target of interest” (TOI) for NASA’s current exoplanet finding mission, TESS, and your observation can help exoplanet scientists better understand these distant worlds. The other is a special Unistellar scientific object, we are calling Unistellar Exoplanet 2 (UE2).

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), currently in operation, is the follow-up to the successful exoplanet Kepler mission. Its goal is to survey most of the sky for close by exoplanets and find the best Earth or super-Earth sized planets for future missions capable of further characterization, such as determining the makeup of their atmospheres and searching for possible biosignatures, which could indicate the presence of life.

Your data could help verify and/or add to a better understanding of this potential exoplanet’s characteristics.

*Successful observers whose data show a transit will be provided with a transit light curve and we may be able to use this data for other research we’re involved with that may possibly result in scientific publications where observers are credited in publication (no promises, but we hope!). 😃
**Good focus and collimation is very important for the UE2 target to avoid photometric blending with a nearby star.

Please be sure to carefully read over the observation directions PDF below if you have never attempted an exoplanet transit with your Unistellar eVscope or need a review. Thank you to Tom and the SETI Institute Unistellar Science Team for help planning these exciting observations!

Please send questions and observing reports to citizenscience@unistellaroptics.com.

Best,

Dan

General Target Information

Unistellar Exoplanet 2 (UE2)

• Special Unistellar/SETI Institute scientific object

• This may result in interesting scientific discoveries/research with professional astronomers in the exoplanet field

• Good focus and collimation is very important for the UE2 target to avoid photometric blending with a nearby star.

TOI 841.01

• TIC 238932509.01

• V = 13.367 ± 0.126

• Orbital period = 3.5 days

• Hot Jupiter

• Sun-like star

OBSERVING INFORMATION REGION

Central Europe & Northern Africa

Region latitudes between ~13–48 N
Date: Evening of 26 January
Observation Start – End Time (Central European Standard Time, UTC+1): 21:20 – 00:17
Target Name: UE2
RA: 06:13:17
Dec: 63:41:06
Exposure Time (ms): 3970
Cadence (ms): 3970
Gain (db): 26
Elevation range: 40–75 deg

Northern Europe

Region latitudes north of ~48 N
Date: Evening of 23 January
Observation Start – End Time (Central European Standard Time, UTC+1): 03:57 – 06:55
Target Name: UE2
RA: 06:13:17
Dec: 63:41:06
Exposure Time (ms): 3970
Cadence (ms): 3970
Gain (db): 26
Elevation range: 30–55 deg

Hawaii

Date: Evening of 15 January
Observation Start – End Time (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, UTC-10): 21:04 – 00:02
Target Name: UE2
RA: 06:13:17
Dec: 63:41:06
Exposure Time (ms): 3970
Cadence (ms): 3970
Gain (db): 26
Approx. Elevation: 47 deg

Japan

Date: Evening of 21 January
Observation Start – End Time (Japan Standard Time, UTC+9): 21:20 – 00:17
Target Name: UE2
RA: 06:13:17
Dec: 63:41:06
Exposure Time (ms): 3970
Cadence (ms): 3970
Gain (db): 26
Approx. Elevation: 60 deg

North America, Central America, Caribbean

Region latitudes between ~8–48 N
Date: Evening of 23 January
Observation Start – End Time (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-5): 21:57 – 00:55
Target Name: UE2
RA: 06:13:17
Dec: 63:41:06
Exposure Time (ms): 3970
Cadence (ms): 3970
Gain (db): 26
Elevation range: 30–75 deg

South America

Region latitudes between ~7 N & 38 S, all longitudes
Date: Evening of 16 January
Observation Start – End Time (Chile Summer Time, UTC-3): 21:55 – 01:12
Target Name: TOI 841.01
RA: 06:19:46
Dec: -53:13:36
Exposure Time (ms): 3970
Cadence (ms): 3970
Gain (db): 35
Elevation range: 30–75 deg

Finder Charts (look at image captions for target name)

UNISTELLAR eVSCOPE EXOPLANET OBSERVING DIRECTIONS USING OCCULTATION MODE

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE DIRECTIONS, OR VIEW THEM BELOW.

IMPORTANT APP UPDATE: There is a new version of the Unistellar app (v1.2) that allows you to use “Exoplanet transits” (see screenshots below). The PDF directions linked above and below have been updated for use with the current app version so make sure to look at them or update your files if you were using the older version that used the Asteroid occultations menu.
Please use Exoplanet mode for this transit. Use cadences mentioned above and 30 minute durations.