Amateur Astronomer Participation in the TESS Exoplanet Mission ~ Dennis M. Conti (AAVSO)

As the next step in our discovery of exoplanets, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) was launched on April 18, 2018. TESS is a follow-on to the very successful Kepler space telescope, which itself has discovered over 3,000 exoplanets. However, unlike the small patch of sky that Kepler focused on, TESS will be conducting an all-sky survey of nearby stars.

Follow-up observations by amateur astronomers will be an important part of the TESS pipeline to help distinguish true exoplanet transits from false positives, as well as to help refine their ephemerides.

This talk will describe how amateur astronomers can participate in the TESS exoplanet mission and thereby help adDavid Pulleyvance our knowledge of these distant worlds

This Month in Astronomy ~ Tony Baxter, Sebastian von Harrach,

Gravational Waves, Spectroscopy and more.