Exoplanet - Qatar-1b Directions

Review the Unistellar Exoplanet Observation Guide

For Saturday night, October 7, 2023, pacific time zone.

  1. Set up at 10 pm
    -Secure tripod, make sure it is level
    -Orient telescope
    -Find a bright star and use Bahtinov mask to fine tune focus

  2. In the Unistellar app science mode, click on “Exoplanet transits”

  3. Do a test GoTo with the following coordinates:
    Ra: 20h 13m 32s
    Dec: +65° 09' 44''
    The star field you see may look similar to the image below (finder chart), but it may be hard to tell since the image may be rotated based on when/where you’re viewing it. Trust the coordinates, but the finder chart can be helpful.

  4. Close to 10:30 pm do another GoTo to recenter the target star and then at 10:30 pm set the recording parameters to the following:
    Record duration: 00h 60m 00s
    Exp: 3970
    Gain: 30
    Cadence: 3970

  5. Once the recording finshes, repeat this process until about 1:20 am. You may have to adjust the last recording session to be less than 60 min—that’s fine

  6. Once you finish recording, take darks by:
    -putting lens cap on
    -using the same recording setting above, EXCEPT change recording duation to
    Recording duration: 00h 02m 00s

  7. Next week, we’ll upload the data in class