Well, I just wanted to post this in the thread with inaccuracies in reporting astronomy. I've seen the article on yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090128/ap_on_sc/sci_hot_planet
I got puzzled by the 1200 degrees or so change in the temperature while other sources were giving only about 700...till I finally realized it was in fahrenheit degrees...
But then, something else caught my eye

That's cool...but don't know if it's really possible. And what to expect to see in a small amateur telescope?

EDIT: I know you can't really see the planet! That's impossible!
It will be like a slight drop in the stars light (at least I guess so).

This isn't really the best place for observational astronomy - ( http://www.bautforum.com/astronomical-obse...nt-accessories/ is very good ) - but I really don't imagine the average amateur is going to be able to see the occultation. They take instruments that measure the magnitude of the star over time, and see it decrease, very very slightly, during an event.

Doug

Well, that's another reason I thought to post it in the inaccuracies thread


I thought so myself. But I don't know, is it possible to notice with the naked eye a drop of only 1 to few percents in a star's light?
Another aspect is that the transit might be to slow for a human to perceive it...it all depends on where in the it's orbit is the planet during the occultation.
But it will sure be cool for amateurs to see it!

I would say no.

Actually the unfortunate wording of this comment does add a touch of humor. I can't wait for the new planet to arrive here.

They probably should have noted that; "HD80606b will PASS between the Earth and its star."

Duck & cover!!!

In all seriousness, what the author probably really meant re amateur observation is that many advanced ams these days have "small" telescopes...say 20-cm apertures & up, often WAY up...and all sorts of sophisticated equipment that can do excellent photometry. Most of them use this for observation of variable stars, but I'm sure that a lot of them may be thinking about getting into transiting exoplanet detection, and this event would serve as an excellent benchmark for such efforts.

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