Hi Jay, I'm guessing amateur equipment is not up to the task but I'll leave that call to the real exo-planeteers on the list (Jerry? Cindy?). patrick On 28 May 2009, at 07:28, JayLEads wrote:
Patrick et. al.,
Besides measuring the primary eclipse where the planet moves in front of the star, being new I am just wondering if it is possible to also do what Sptizer has done and measure the light emitted by a star alone during a secondary eclipse when the planet passes behind the star? By measuring the difference in light from when the planet moves in front of the star to when it is moving behind the star couldn't one estimate the amount of light that is coming from the planet, thus extending the graph a little more?
If I understand the linked graph it shows the light reduction from the planet coming in front of the star. So by extending it and perhaps repeating for verification of data one could determine how much light the planet is putting out and I'm sure someone could then probably make a correlation between the amount of light being put out and mass (the greater the mass the more light it would put out and/or the closer to the star in its orbit)? Perhaps I'm just loopy still from having been so sick for the last week. Back to bed and the meds.