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Who Needs NASA? Exoplanet Detected Using a DSLR
Iddo Genuth writes Until 20 years ago even the best telescopes in the world could not detect a planet outside our solar system. Now, with the aid of a basic DSLR, low cost lens and some DIY magic, you just might be able to "see" ET's home planet for yourself. Your DSLR can do much more than just take a few nice portraits or the occasional vacation photos – if you have some DIY experience (O.K. a bit more than just "some"), you might be able to repeat what David Schneider was recently been able to do — that is, building his own planet finder using only inexpensive photo gear, low cost electronics, the right kind of software and a lot of patience. Although Schneider was "only" able to rediscover an already known exsoplanet (some 63 light-years away from us), what he did — and more importantly how he did it — might allow planet hunting to become closer to SETI@home than NASA's 550,000 million dollar Kepler space telescope project.
This is a really cool project, with a terrible headline. Without NASA (or perhaps the ESA, or whatever space organization first found this exoplanet), David Schneider wouldn't have been able to look up the timing for the planet's transit. He wouldn't even have know to try taking pictures of that particular star. He'd have to take a lot more photos over a much longer time, over a much bigger area of the sky, and run a lot more image comparision software for a lot longer, before he's have found that transit.