Abstract
High-precision photometry of transiting exoplanet systems has contributed significantly to our understanding of the properties of their atmospheres. The best targets are the bright exoplanet systems, for which the high number of photons allow very high signal-to-noise ratios. Most of the current instruments are not optimised for these high-precision measurements, either they have a large read-out overhead to reduce the readnoise and/or their field-of-view is limited, preventing simultaneous observations of both the target and a reference star. Recently we have proposed a new wide-field imager for the Observatoir de Mont-Megantic optimised for these bright systems (PI: Jayawardhana). The instruments has a dual beam design and a field-of-view of 17' by 17'. The cameras have a read-out time of 2 seconds, significantly reducing read-out overheads. Over the past years we have obtained significant experience with how to reach the high precision required for the characterisation of exoplanet atmospheres. Based on our experience we provide the following advice: Get the best calibrations possible. In the case of bad weather, characterise the instrument (e.g. non-linearity, dome flats, bias level), this is vital for better understanding of the science data. Observe the target for as long as possible, the out-of-transit baseline is as important as the transit/eclipse itself. A short baseline can lead to improperly corrected systematic and mis-estimation of the red-noise. Keep everything (e.g. position on detector, exposure time) as stable as possible. Take care that the defocus is not too strong. For a large defocus, the contribution of the total flux from the sky-background in the aperture could well exceed that of the target, resulting in very strict requirements on the precision at which the background is measured.
Highlights
We have proposed a new wide-field imager for the Observatoir de Mont-Megantic optimised for these bright systems (PI: Jayawardhana)
High precision ground-based observations of exoplanets have played an important role in the characterisation their atmospheres
For high-precision photometry it is necessary to obtain as large an out-of-transit baseline as possible, since this baseline provides the level with respect to which the transit/eclipse depth is measured and is used to correct for systematic effects in the data
Summary
High precision ground-based observations of exoplanets have played an important role in the characterisation their atmospheres. Both during transit [e.g. 1, 2] as well as during the secondary eclipse [e.g. 3–5] and even for non-transiting planets [6, 7]. All these observations require very high precision in order to detect the small signals induced by the atmosphere ( 3 mmag for secondary eclipses in the near-infrared and a few times 10−4 for transmission spectroscopy).
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