The Fundamentals of Exoplanet Observing
by
Dennis M. Conti
Chairman, AAVSO's Exoplanet Section
www.astrodennis.com

Exoplanet observations by amateur astronomers and educational institutions are now well recognized by the professional community as an important contribution to exoplanet research. For example, amateur astronomer participation in such programs as KELT and a recent Hubble pro/am collaboration have included:

1. Follow up observations of suspected exoplanets and confirmation of exoplanet candidates
2. Refinement of the ephemeris of known exoplanets
3. Participation in microlensing events
4. Characterization of disintegrating planetesimals.

However, as active as it has been, exoplanet observing by amateurs has only recently evolved from an art to a well-established scientific process and these best practices are now well documented in "A Practical Guide to Exoplanet Observing."

As new space telescopes such as TESS (Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) come online in the next 1-2 years, the need for further participation in exoplanet research by observers with modest size telescopes is only going to increase. Followup observations of candidate exoplanets, for example, will be needed to help determine whether an observed transit is due to an exoplanet or a near-by eclipsing binary.

The first part of this talk will review the now well-established fundamentals of exoplanet observing with small telescopes using high precision, differential photometry. Next, the processing of an actual exoplanet observation will be presented using AstroImageJ (AIJ). AIJ is an all-in-one, freeware software package that has become the de facto standard used by both the professional and amateur communities for conducting exoplanet observing.