Transit Photometry with the LCOGT Network

Abstract

Within a single year, we deployed and commissioned a total of seven 1m telescopes to three sites (McDonald Observatory, CTIO and SAAO). These are complemented by two existing 2m telescopes, located in the northern (Haleakala) and southern (Siding Spring Observatory) hemispheres. Before the end of 2013, one additional 1m telescope will be deployed at McDonald Observatory, and two at Siding Spring Observatory, which will complete the southern ring and enable continuous LCOGT dark time in the southern hemisphere. We present transit observations acquired at each site with currently-deployed 1m telescopes. These data demonstrate some of the network's unique capabilities, such as simultaneous transit observations from multiple sites and construction of full transits by combining partial transit light curves from two sites. Such exercises pave the path toward searching for and characterizing transits of long period exoplanets, simultaneous multi-color transit observations, as well as studying spot distributions and rotation periods of exoplanet host stars using the LCOGT network.