Thread

A 12-year sequence of telescope images of a star and four planets orbiting

402 points · 82 comments · mariuz

Kaxo · 1790970820 · focus · HN ↗
The noise from the blocked-out star noticably decreases in 2017. Is that due to changes in the stars' activity cycle, or is that due to better processing/capture technology?
1. wthomp · 1791051435 · focus · HN ↗
  In 2017 we captured five nights worth of images and averaged them. Some early years only had one night.
  Around 2019 we also figured out some better observing strategies— all the later data is taken without a coronagraph. Turns out the coronagraph was hurting more than it helped, close in. Not to say coronagraphs aren’t useful, but some aspects of the observatory control software aren’t in place to get the benefits out of the coronagraph.

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