Being part of TFOP-SG1
Presenter(s): Chris Stockdale
Affiliation(s): LVAS, AAQ
Session details: Saturday, 2022-04-16 01:10:00, ONL
Abstract
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched in 2018 and to-date has catalogued over 5100 new planet candidates. In a huge international effort, over 560 members of the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group image, process, and report their findings. As well as some background information on the TESS satellite and TFOP, I will discuss how I, like many other amateur astronomers around the globe, are able to contribute to Exoplanet science through this group. I’ll show what I do and how I am able to contribute to TFOP Science Group 1. I’ll also briefly cover some of the key scientific results that have come from TESS, including fields other than exoplanetary science.
Biography
Chris Stockdale is an IT Systems Specialist who has been interested in astronomy since the Apollo Moon landings. His interest intensified during 1985 – 1986 with the arrival of Halley’s Comet and the purchase of what he regarded as his first decent telescope, a C8, in 1985. In 1992 Chris built his first observatory: a manually operated dome with a massive push-to mount that held his C8 and a C11. Chris replaced his observatory with a Sirius dome, AP1200, and Planewave CDK12.5 in 2013. The observatory is now fully automated, and images exoplanet candidates for the TESS Follow-up Observing Program – Science Group 1 every clear night. Chris is president of the Latrobe Valley Astronomical Society in Gippsland.