Event Details

Ground and spaced based searches for exoplanets, such as the KELT and Kepler, continue to discover hundreds of transiting giant planets on close-in orbits (P<10 days). These “Hot Jupiters” have been known about since the discovery of 51 Peg b in 1994, and yet little is known of their formation and migration history. The DEdicated MONitor of EXotransits and Transients (DEMONEXT) is a 20 inch (0.5-m) robotic and automated telescope located at Winer Observatory in southern Arizona that has actively been observing and confirming Hot Jupiters since 2016. DEMONEXT is equipped with a 2kx2k pixel detector, an electronic focuser, and a 10-position filter wheel with B, V, R, I, g’, r’, i’, z’, and clear filters. DEMONEXT observes transiting planets in a continuous observing mode and achieves 2-4 ppt raw, unbinned, precision on bright V<13 targets with 20-120 second exposures, and ppt precision achieved by binning on 5-6 minute timescales. In addition to this observing mode, DEMONEXT achieves 1-10% photometry on single-epoch targets with V<17 in 5 minute exposures, with detection thresholds of V~21. The DEMONEXT automated software has produced over 300 planetary candidate transit light curves for the KELT collaboration, and over 100 supernovae and transient light curves for the ASAS-SN supernovae group in the first two years of operations. DEMONEXT has also observed for a number of ancillary science projects including Galactic microlensing, active galactic nuclei, stellar variability, and stellar rotation. Beginning in 2018-2019, DEMONEXT will transition to observing and confirming long-period giant planets (P>30d) expected to be discovered by TESS as single-transits. These long-period giant planets are expected to shed light onto the formation and migration history of Hot Jupiters.